The Photography of Fred McDarrah on Display at the Steven Kasher Gallery

by | Feb 4, 2014 | Culture, Entertainment | 0 comments

The Steven Kasher Gallery offers us a window into the past by hosting the illuminating Fred McDarrah: Save the Village photo exhibition.

The exhibition will feature the photographs taken by the renowned photographer,  who work provides an insightful document of many of the key events and personalities of  1960s and ’70s New York.

Bob Dylan in Sheridan Square Park, January 22, 1965
copyright Estate of Fred W. McDarrah, courtesy Steven Kasher Gallery, New York

McDarrah was the first photo editor and only staff photographer of The Village Voice from 1958 to 1979. His access  to events and celebrities was and remained envied his contemporaries and photographers of today.  His son, Timothy told The New York Times,  “You (Fred) could be standing three feet from Jimi Hendrix at a cocktail party and start shooting.”

McDarrah photographed the artists, writers, musicians, and actors who frequented the bars, theaters, art galleries, and cafes in Greenwich Village. He documented political rallies, gay rights, feminism, and the anti-war movement. His simple documentary style of street and studio portraits became his defining signature. Many of his subjects, often little known when he first shot them, became cultural icons, such as Jack Kerouac, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, and Allen Ginsberg.

Other culturally historical significant figures to also be included in the collection will be  Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Barnett Newman, Alice Neel, Yayoi Kusama, John Cage, Norman Mailer, Tennessee Williams, Susan Sontag, Harold Pinter, Woody Allen, Jack Smith, Yoko Ono, the Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, and Ed Koch.

Robert F. Kennedy in slum apartment in the Lower East Side,  May 8, 1967

Robert Kennedy in Slum Apartment, May 8, 1967.
copyright Estate of Fred W. McDarrah, courtesy Steven Kasher Gallery, New York

McDarrah’s photographs have been exhibited at numerous museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York (currently); the Whitney Museum of American Art, also in New York; the Albright–Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo; and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and are in numerous private and public collection.  He was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1972.

During his lifetime he also published a number of books showcasing his work which include The Beat Scene (1960), The Artists World (1961), Greenwich Village Guide (1963), New York, New York (1964) Museums in New York (1967), Stock Photo and Assignment Source Book (1977), Kerouac and Friends: A Beat Generation Album (1985), Gay Pride: Photos from Stonewall to Today (1994), Beat Generation Glory Days in Greenwich Village (1996), The Photo Encyclopedia (1999) and Anarchy Protest and Rebellion & The Counterculture that Changed America (2003), and  Artists and Writers of the 60s and 70s (2006).

Fred W. McDarrah: Save the Village will be on view through March 8th, 2014. The Steven Kasher Gallery is located at 521 W. 23rd St. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, from 11 AM to 6 PM.

For more information about the exhibition and all other general inquiries, please contact Maya Piergies, 212 966 3978 or visit the gallery’s website http://stevenkasher.com/

Alejandro Ramos

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