Nearly 25 years have passed since groundbreaking artist Minor White’s last major exhibition. The photographer, who died in 1976 and was known for his black and white, sexually charged pictures—he was one of the first to photograph male nudes—will have a retrospective at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. A corresponding book, Minor White: Manifestations of the Spirit (Getty Publications, 2014), will include quotes from White’s 40 years of journals and more than 160 images made over five decades (some that have never been seen before).
On view for the first time is White’s entire stunning series entitled “The Temptation of Anthony Is Mirrors,” including 32 photographs of White’s student and model Tom Murphy made in 1947 and 1948 in San Francisco. The project—which shows Murphy’s hands and feet interspersed within a larger group of portraits and nude figure studies—was kept a secret for years because, at the time, it was illegal to publish or show images with male frontal nudity.
Other works included are White’s early pictures of the city of Portland that depict his religious searching, his photographs of the urban streets of San Francisco and his elegant images of rocks, sandy beaches and tidal pools in Point Lobos State Park in Northern California. The exhibition will be display until October 14 at the Getty—or on your coffee table whenever you like.
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