Artwork Title: New York

New York, 1942

Helen Levitt

Artwork Title: New YorkArtwork Title: New York
[Online this photograph is sometimes dated 1939.] In Ms. Levitt’s best-known picture, three properly dressed children prepare to go trick-or-treating on Halloween 1939. Standing on the stoop outside their house, they are in almost metaphorical stages of readiness. The girl on the top step is putting on her mask; a boy near her, his mask in place, takes a graceful step down, while another boy, also masked, lounges on a lower step, coolly surveying the world.... [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/arts/design/30levitt.html] ...Was Levitt really trying to capture Halloween in New York City or a deeper reflection of society during that time? Could it be possible that this painting symbolizes how people in the 1940s and still today have to put on a certain cover before going out into the real world? Does acceptance have greater importance than one’s inner being and feeling? The masks represent the cover up that... http://comtemplit.blogspot.nl/2011/05/kids-with-masks-helen-levitt.html
Uploaded on Nov 20, 2012 by Rebekah Burgess Abramovich

Arthur is a
Digital Museum