Muhammad Ali--Oscar Bonavena Press Conference, New York

Artist Garry Winogrand (American, 1928 - 1984)

Date1970; printed ca. 1980

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 8 3/4 × 13 3/16 inches (22.23 × 33.5 cm)
Sheet: 10 15/16 × 13 7/8 inches (27.78 × 35.24 cm)

Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Object number2005.27.4480

On View

Not on view

Collections

Photography

Terms

Exhibition History

20th-Century Works from the Hallmark Photographic Collection. Cottey College, Nevada, MO, January 9-27, 1984, no cat.

Faces: an Exhibition from the Hallmark Photographic Collection. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, September 16 -October 21, 1984, no. 37.

Twentieth-Century Photographers: Selections from the HPC. Columbus College of Art & Design, Columbus, OH, March 28 - April 27, 1996, no cat.

Black and White in America: Photography of the Civil Rights Era. The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 19 – October 3, 2004, no cat.

American Photographs: Selections From The Hallmark Photographic Collection at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Mulvane Art Museum, Topeka, KS, September 15 - September 29, 2006, no cat.

In the Public Eye: Photography and Fame. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 8 - June 15, 2008, no cat.

Gallery Label

In 1969, Winogrand received a Guggenheim Fellowship to photograph the effect of media on events. This work depicts reporters and photographers swarming around the ever-quotable Muhammad Ali; the reporters are at once the cause of, and witnesses to, this scene of exuberant chaos. The Bonavena fight was Ali's first bout after the revocation of his heavyweight title due to his refusal to be drafted. A highly divisive figure at this time, Ali would become one of the most beloved and recognized sports personalities in world.

Published References

April M. Watson, Picturing "Pseudo-Events" in Garry Winogrand's Public Relations, (EXPOSURE, the journal of the Society for Photograph Education. (49:2), 2016) 5, Fig 1 (repro).

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