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He Museum of Modern Art: West 53 Street, New York, N.Y. 10019 Tel. 956-6100 Cable: Modernart
He Museum of Modern Art: West 53 Street, New York, N.Y. 10019 Tel. 956-6100 Cable: Modernart
PRESS PREVIEW:
OCTOBER 6, 1970 (11 a.m.-4 p.m.)
form and single pictures, by the New York photographer, will be on view from
Michals invents are posed and theatrical. Yet, they are so common to the
urban condition that we have the illusion of remembering scenes and events
The interplay between the fantastic or surreal and the ordinary is at the
heart of Michals' pictures. A strong documentary strain runs through his early
work and survives in his recent photographs. However, his people now exist
the situations and decisive moments are the photographer's inventions, the
While the pictures are contrived, the technique is unobtrusive and straight-
forward, and the spectator is put directly in touch with the event portrayed.
Many of the settings are simple, ordinary places. However, these places become
Burback, "these pseudo events become fact because the photographs prove that
a shoe is dropped on an empty street and catches fire. The image of the burning
events remain imaginary, a photograph offers proof and invests the event with
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be an event, some surreal, such as "The Lost Shoe." Others are realistic,
filled cardboard box which burns to the ground. In Michals' pictures such
Many of Michals' recent serial works appear in a new book of his photo-
graphs. Sequences, just published by Doubleday 8. Co.
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Wall Label
William Burback
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