Fifties Individuals

Philippe Halsman
Marlon Brando
1950
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Philippe Halsman
Zsa Zsa Gabor
1951
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Richard Avedon
Buster Keaton
1952
gelatin silver print
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

 

Elizabeth Catlett
Ethel Rosenberg
1952
drawing
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Carl Van Vechten
Leontyne Price
1952
photogravure
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Chim (David Seymour)
Kirk Douglas
1954
(inkjet print produced from original negative in 2006)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Gordon Parks
Gloria Vanderbilt, New York
1954
gelatin silver print
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Ben Shahn
J. Robert Oppenheimer
1954
drawing
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Leigh Wiener
Billie Holiday
1954
gelatin silver print
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington DC

John Koch
Princess Margaret
1955
oil on panel
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Kay Bell Reynal
T.S. Eliot
1955
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Henry Koerner
Julie Harris
1955
oil on canvas
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Elmer Bischoff
Richard Diebenkorn
ca. 1956
ink on paper
Archives of American Art, Washington DC

Leon Levinstein
West Side
1957
gelatin silver print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Boris Artzybasheff
George Beadle
1958
tempera on panel
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Bernard Safran
Jean Thom
1958
oil on panel
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Man Ray
Naomi Savage
ca. 1959
color transparency back-coated with gouache
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

from Near The New Whitney

In the Meatpacking District,

Not far from the new Whitney,

In a charming restaurant,

I showed how charming I can be.

I showed how blue my eyes can be. 

I showed I can be Dante first catching sight of Beatrice.

The maître d' was new to me.

The sudden sight of her, so gently lovely,

Threw me at the pressed-tin ceiling, where I stuck.

I asked her where I was, her name was Emily.

I don't know who the ceiling was.

I doubt pressed tin was what it was. 

I was moonstruck.

Now I could only look up.

American art used to be risky.

American art used to be frisky

And drink a lot of whisky.

I looked up at Emily, not far from the new Whitney.

Seventy years ago

There were violently drunkard painters downtown who,

Many of them, painted violently

In the Hamptons also.

Now they were in the splendid new Whitney, dead

Instead.

– Frederick Seidel (2018)