Washington Square, New York City

Artist Dave Heath (Canadian, born United States, 1931 - 2016)

Date1960

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage and sheet: 9 3/4 × 6 13/16 inches (24.77 × 17.3 cm)
Mount: 14 × 11 inches (35.56 × 27.94 cm)

Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation

Object number2005.37.270

SignedSigned on mount verso, top center, below inscription, in pencil: "Dave Heath".

InscribedInscribed on mount verso, top center, in pencil: "Washington Square NYC ca1960".

MarkingsOn mount verso, top left, in pencil: "LP 242.1"; On mount verso, bottom edge, in pencil: "PF41313" , "HF.496.034.03".

On View

Not on view

Collections

Photography

Terms

DescriptionImage of a woman with dark hair and bangs looking off towards the left edge of the image. Two men appear in the background above her.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

“I find it difficult to live with people, but I have to have the presence of people around me … Take people away and the world is gone, the universe doesn’t exist, I don’t exist.” Dave Heath

Here, Dave Heath captures an intimate moment in which the world falls away and we are left with just two people. Heath first took up photography as a teenager residing in a Philadelphia orphanage. Initially inspired by photojournalism and the images he saw in Life magazine, Heath took a more personal approach to photography, using it as a means of self-expression and self-exploration rather than documentation.

Provenance

Howard Greenburg Gallery, New York, NY;
Purchased from Howard Greenburg Gallery by Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, MO, 2001;
Given by Hallmark Cards, Inc. to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2005.

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