Classic images of Muhammad Ali, including shots of the young boxer then known as Cassius Clay, are on display outside Philadelphia at the Michner Art Museum in Doylestown, through May 15.
Based on an exhibit that was first displayed at Hofstra, the photos of Muhammad Ali include work by the best photographers of the era. From the Bucks Local News report on exhibts of Elvis and Ali:
Ali’s story is one of an American hero who has come full circle in the hearts and minds of people throughout the world, and features more than 50 photographs by such distinguished photographers as Annie Leibovitz, Gordon Parks and Art Shay that capture Ali’s positive public image. Although his braggadocio and vanity flouted conventional ideas about sportsmanship, the overall sense was that Ali was a “good kid” who valued family and community and was using boxing to earn a share of the American dream.
The James A. Michener Art Museum is at 138 South Pine St., Doylestown, Pa. More information, visit www.michenerartmuseum.org or call (215) 340-9800. More information from the ArtInfo on the Ali photos or the ArtDaily post on the Ali photos. From the Morning Call review, by Steve Siegel:
One was called "The King," the other "The Greatest." Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali are the very essence of 20th century American icons — revered, worshiped, beloved, and sometimes, in the case of Ali, even hated.
They shared fame, notoriety, and headlines as their lives unfolded in separate ways, each triumphant and each ultimately tragic.
The Philadelphia Inquirer published an essay on both exhibits by the music critic Dan DeLuca, who singled out one Shay image: "Art Shay's picture of a brash, on-the-rise Cassius Clay in a locker room in his hometown of Louisville, Ky., in 1964 (with his mother, Odessa, close by)."
Art Shay's photo talent has inspired generations of photographers now shooting all over the world. Three Shay children who made photography their profession are among the top of this group. Steve Shay, now working in Seattle, has a gallery opening tonight.
Steve Shay has been invited to show his photographs by Alki Arts Gallery owners Diane Venti and husband Tom Wyrick. The event is this Friday night, March 25, 7pm-10pm.
Alki Arts Gallery is at next to Cactus Restaurant, at 2820 Alki Ave SW. (206) 432-9936 *Wine and cheese and dessert reception. *Music by Brooke Trisler. He's awesome!
Steve paid tribute to Art Shay in an essay about Elizabeth Taylor that ran in the West Seattle Herald with this Art Shay photo:
Taylor, who died on Wednesday at age 79, was at the Ambassador East hotel in Chicago in the 1960 when Art Shay captured her beauty and glamour. A few weeks later, Art Shay was on a flight about to leave Los Angeles for Chicago. Steve picks up the story of the actress and the photographer:
... they open a door and Elizabeth Taylor in a fur coat comes on and the only seat left in the plane was next to me. I had my camera case with me, the one she had signed a few weeks earlier at the event in Chicago. She sat next to me, and recognizing me said, "Art, let's not talk. Let's sleep all the way to Chicago."
My father claims he honored her request. That to me is the amazing part of this story, my dad not saying a word for over three hours.
Art Shay has managed to provide audiences in the decades since with at least a few words about the chance meeting. Many details appeared in this post on the Chicagoist blog from January: From the Vault of Art Shay: Sleeping With Elizabeth Taylor.
The blizzard of 2011 brings to mind other great snows and plunging temperatures of years gone by. Remember 1977? It was a little chilly then, too. Art Shay captured the feeling in this Time cover shot. Click for more on Art Shay's work for Time.
Catch up on the Art Shay photo galleries at the Chicagoist: Nelson and Simone and, for Green Bay Packers fans, That Green Light From Wisconsin. Don't miss the Art Shay photo from the Blizzard of '79.
Museums, collectors and galleries treasure prints from Art Shay's seven decades of making memorable images. Joan Brunwasser of OpEd News caught up with the peripatetic photographer recently and asked how it all started. Here's is Shay's response, from Art Shay: That Was Then, Part One:
In 1939, the year I was 17, I noticed that the windows of shops on downtown 57th Street were lit by then-new neon lamps. I lugged my $5 tripod downtown at night and began making Graflex time exposures of displays. My first and best sale was to the Hammond Organ Company. They bought five at $5 each and began sending me to churches, where I photographed Hammond organs.
From those church visits, it was a short step to navigating B-24 over Europe in World War II and then to Life magazine.
After the war and stops in Washington and San Francisco, Shay and his family settled in this house in the Chicago suburbs (backyard Hula Hoop photo by Art Shay). Top names, big events and high-profile photo assignments dominated his schedule. A driving curiosity and a powerful sense of the moment dominated his work. Brunwasser, in Art Shay: That Was Then, Part Two, asked Shay to describe how he worked. Shay's response:
My eye was ever the hunter in employ of my mission. Good example: my early Time picture of Sen. McCarthy at the Stockyards Inn. I "covered" his speech - but also got a great image of him juxtaposed with a circular ceiling lamp - giving him an unearned halo, underlying how little fit he was to wear one. Most of my pictures were taken in off moments of great event assignments.
Another example was published this week by Shay on the Chicagoist. It was 1960 and Elizabeth Taylor was in Chicago to promote a movie. In this installment of From the Vault of Art Shay, the photographer describes Taylor as "otherworldly gorgeous in her purple-eyed, curvaceous prime" and goes on to describe the time a few weeks later they shared a TWA flight and Taylor fell asleep on his shoulder.
Shay is hard at work on his next Chicagoist column. For all the time spent looking back, it's always been the next project that has attracted his focus and enthusiasm.
Art Shay continues to produce compelling photos from his vault of images created over more than six decades of work as a professional photographer. This view of the Chicago skyline shot from a small Cessna some 30 years ago is one of a group of photographs published this week by the Chicagoist.
Chicagoist Presents: From the Vault of Art Shay is now in the second week. Last week included a group of rare images and a note about the decisions a photographer makes in the split second it takes to frame a work of art: From the Vault of Art Shay, Week 1.
This week, the collection centers around the idea of New Year's Eve and the celebration of special moments in a life well lived.
Recent Comments