Press contacts:
Anne Scher
or Alex Wittenberg
212.423.3271
or
pressoffice@thejm.org
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DAVID
GOLDBLATT
IN
CONVERSATION WITH
JOSEPH
LELYVELD
AT
THE JEWISH MUSEUM MAY 4
New
York,
NY – On Tuesday, May 4 at 6:30 pm, The Jewish
Museum presents photographer David
Goldblatt in conversation with Joseph Lelyveld, former New York Times executive editor and
correspondent in South
Africa.
The two will discuss the new exhibition, South African Photographs: David
Goldblatt, on view at the Museum from May 1 through September 19,
2010.
For
further information regarding programs at The Jewish Museum, the public may
call 212.423.3337. Tickets for lectures, film screenings
and concerts at The Jewish Museum can now be purchased online at the Museum’s
Web site, www.thejewishmuseum.org/calendar.
South African
Photographs: David Goldblatt, the largest New York City
exhibition of the photographer's work since 2001, presents
150 black-and-white silver gelatin prints taken between 1948 and 2009,
focusing on South
Africa’s human landscape in the apartheid and
post-apartheid eras. Goldblatt has not documented major political events or
horrifying incidents of violence.
Instead, he focuses on the details of daily life and the world of
ordinary people, a world where the apartheid system penetrates every aspect of
society. He is constantly searching
for the substance beneath the surface of human situations.
David Goldblatt
was born in 1930, the youngest of the three sons of Eli and Olga Goldblatt. His grandparents arrived in
South Africa from
Lithuania around 1893, having fled
the persecution of Jews in the Baltic countries. David’s paternal grandfather owned a
general store in Randfontein, a gold-mining town some forty kilometers west of
Johannesburg. Eli Goldblatt built the business into a
respected men’s clothing store and for some years David assisted with the
running of the shop when his father’s poor health necessitated it. But he was only biding his time. He had become interested in photography
in high school, and after his father’s death in 1962, he sold the business to
devote all of his time to being a photographer. David Goldblatt’s works are held in many
collections, including the Johannesburg
Art Gallery; the Museum of Modern
Art, New York; the
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the
Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the French National Art Collection; and
the Bibliothèque National de France.
He has published several books, including On the Mines, with Nadine Gordimer
(1973); Some Afrikaners Photographed
(1975); In Boksburg (1982); Lifetimes: Under Apartheid, with Nadine
Gordimer (1986); The Transported of
KwaNdebele with Brenda Goldblatt and Phillip van Niekerk (1989); South Africa: The Structure of Things
Then (1998); Particulars (2003);
Intersections (2005); Some Afrikaners Revisited (2007); and Intersections Intersected
(2008).
Joseph Lelyveld
is a former correspondent and editor of The New York Times, serving as executive
editor from 1994 to 2001 and again in 2003. He worked with David Goldblatt on tours
in South
Africa in 1965-1966 and 1980-1983. His
book, Move Your Shadow:
South
Africa, Black and White won a Pulitzer
Prize for general non-fiction in 1986. Lelyveld is the author of a family
memoir, Omaha Blues: A Memory
Loop (2005). His new book, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His
Struggle with India, will be published by Knopf in
2011.
An infrared assistive listening system for the hearing impaired is
available for programs in the Museum's S. H. and Helen R. Scheuer
Auditorium.
This program is The Gertrude and David Fogelson Lecture, endowed by gifts
in honor of Gertrude and David Fogelson.
Public Programs at The Jewish Museum are supported, in part, by public
funds from by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Major annual support is provided by the
New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency. The stage lighting has been funded by
the Office of Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer. The audio-visual system has been funded
by New York State Assembly Member Jonathan Bing.
About The Jewish
Museum
Widely admired for its exhibitions
and educational programs that inspire people of all backgrounds, The Jewish
Museum is the preeminent United States institution exploring
the intersection of 4,000 years of art and Jewish culture. The Jewish Museum was
established in 1904, when Judge Mayer Sulzberger donated 26 ceremonial art
objects to The Jewish Theological Seminary of America as the core of a museum
collection. Today, the Museum maintains an important collection of 26,000
objects—paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, archaeological
artifacts, ceremonial objects, and broadcast media.
General Information
Museum hours are Saturday, Sunday,
Monday, and Tuesday, 11am to 5:45pm; Thursday, 11am to 8pm; and Friday, 11am to
4pm. Museum admission is $12.00 for
adults, $10.00 for senior citizens, $7.50 for students, free for children under
12 and Jewish Museum members.
Admission is free on Saturdays.
For general information on The Jewish Museum, the public may visit the
Museum’s website at http://www.thejewishmuseum.org or
call 212.423.3200. The Jewish
Museum is located at 1109 Fifth
Avenue at 92nd Street, Manhattan.
4/26/10
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