June 2, 2007 - June 19, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                          

New York Genius

Curated by Lou Reed

June 2 – June 19, 2007

Opening reception with curator Lou Reed: Saturday, June 2, 4 - 6pm

Closing reception with numerous Magnum photographers:

Tuesday, June 19, 6 – 8pm

Steven Kasher Gallery is pleased to present New York Genius, an exhibition of vintage and modern photographic prints curated by Lou Reed from the Magnum Archive. 

“As New York City is the center of my universe, it is an honor to be able to curate photos of the many extraordinary creative talents that have continued to make this city so vibrant.  I call this collection New York Genius.”  Lou Reed

Mr. Reed, a photographer himself, is a unique visionary and advocate for the arts in New York City.  Reed plunged into the Magnum Archive and came up with a sequence of stirring portraits that resonate with his passion for his hometown, New York, the cultural melting pot that has nourished Reed and so many others for decades.

The exhibition is comprised of portraits of Mr. Reed’s favorite musicians, dancers, painters, actors, writers, and architects. These are images that inspire, and that are not unmodulated by Mr. Reed’s acerbity and emotional complexity. Pictures included are an exhausted Sammy Davis, Jr. by Burt Glinn, a pensive Susan Sontag by Henri Cartier- Bresson, and a flexuous James Brown by Eve Arnold.  Also included are portraits by Bruce Davidson, Dennis Stock, Wayne Miller, Thomas Hoepker, Erich Lessing, Paul Fusco, and others. Other subjects include Billie Holiday, Andy Warhol, Leonard Bernstein, Allen Ginsberg, Elaine May, Gordon Parks, Zero Mostel, Ornette Coleman, Miles Davis, Robert Rauschenberg, The Supremes, Dion, Martin Scorsese, Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Lowell, Igor Stravinsky, and Ella Fitzgerald.

New York Genius is produced in collaboration with The Magnum Festival: Celebrating the Art of Documentary, a month long tribute to documentary in photography, film, and journalism.  The prestigious agency, credited with taking some of the most iconic imagery of historic events such as the Spanish Civil War, D-Day, The Civil Rights Movement, Tiananmen Square, 9/11, and thousands of others, marks its 60^th Anniversary this year.

For reproduction scans contact Maria Stenina: maria@stevenkasher.com