Description

Art Kane (1925-1995) was one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century. A bold visionary, Kane’s work encompassed fashion, editorial, celebrity portraiture, and nudes with an innovative eye. Like his contemporaries Guy Bourdin and Helmut Newton, Kane gravitated toward strong color, eroticism and surreal humor. After graduating from Cooper Union in 1950, Kane designed page layouts at “Esquire” and at age 27 was named art director at “Seventeen”. In 1956 he studied with Alexey Brodovitch at The New School, where other students included Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and Diane Arbus. Famous for his iconic photographs of jazz and rock legends like the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Doors, and Bob Dylan, Kane responded to the tensions of the era, marked by the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, with editorial work that could reach a large audience. He also contributed to the major fashion magazines, including “Vogue” e “Harper’s Bazaar”. In his lifetime Kane was honored by almost every photo-design organization in the United States: American Society of Magazine Photographers, Photographer of the Year, Newspaper Guild of America, Page One Award, Augustus Saint-Gaudens Medal for Distinguished Achievement, Cooper-Union, New York Art Directors Club, (14) Medals and (28) Awards of Distinctive Merit. In 1984 Kane was given the American Society of Magazine Photographers Lifetime Achievement Award and awards from the AlGA, Society of Typographic Arts and Communication Arts Magazine and awards from Philadelphia, San Francisco, Chicago and Detroit art directors clubs. In 2021 the historic stretch of road on East 126th Street between Fifth and Madison, in Harlem, New York, has been named “Art Kane Harlem 1958 Place”.