Today I visited the Sidney Mishkin Gallery at Baruch. The gallery was displaying The Photographs of Marcel Sternberger: Portraits of the 20th Century. In all honesty I wasn’t expecting much, for two particular reasons. First, I went to an art high school and spent a fair amount of time visiting museums and galleries. At the end of that experience I found that I had much more of a preference for museums because there is more variation in the art I can see. Instead of going to a gallery and viewing the work of one artist — that can be repetitive. Second reason I wasn’t expecting much was that as I entered all the photographs were in black and white — which I expected since it’s 20th century photography— already making the art work seem less interesting to my personal aesthetic.
I began looking at the different pieces and noticed the different sections, for example Religion, Children, World Leaders, etc. What really caught my attention though was how each photograph had a sense of the person’s personality. Some images had a similar mood to it but that mainly had to do with the character of the person. Although they are all pretty much simple portraits the lighting and expressions of the people made each piece different. In some the lighting was strong in contrast matching the stern expressing on the face, while others had a more bright light with a happier expression. My favorite pieces were the ones of Albert Einstein and Frida Kahlo — except the one of diego Rivera and Frida, Rivera is such a creepy person and his photographs definitely showed that. Speaking of creepy some of the portraits were creepy, like the one of mariner. Overall, the gallery was a pleasant surprise and somewhat enjoyable.
