Arnold Newman

Arnold Newman is a master of the environmental portrait, the portrait that takes its subject's surroundings as a crucial, integral element to the portrayal of the person himself. (“Himself,” for there are only two portraits of women in this wonderful collection--Marilyn Monroe and Georgia O'Keeffe.) Newman's career began in 1941 but took off in 1946, when he moved to New York and received his first commission from Life magazine--a portrait of Eugene O'Neill in his library--and then from Harper's Bazaar--the portrait of Igor Stravinsky, all piano with the musician in the corner of the frame. Since then he has constructed an immaculate, cosmopolitan oeuvre that has captured the essential of its subject better than most others, from Piet Mondrian and his rigid easel to Max Ernst in a cloud of smoke and Surrealist objects, from Marcel Duchamp with a readymade to Leonard Bernstein in an empty concert hall, from Woody Allen scribbling notes to Joan Miró smiling like Puck. And here they all are, a wonderful cast of artist, poets, scientists and other characters, alongside an interview with the photographer and a thoughtful essay on his work.