Eve Arnold
Leeds Gallery, UT campus
through August 30
It feels almost wrong to label Eve Arnold a photographer; “era chronicler” or
“truth seeker” seems more fitting. For more than four decades, Arnold has
captured the lives of countless people in innumerable situations, and while her
images bear the mark of a skilled photographer — a good eye, an instinct for
timing, an ability to feel the “essence” of a situation — they seem to be
more: the heart of an age and of the individuals who lived it.
The age of Arnold began in the 1950s, when her work with Life magazine
(“when Life was at its pre-television peak”) brought images of both the
glamorous and the rejected into everyone’s home, each picture conveying an
earnestness that would become her trademark.
Arnold had a knack for capturing beauty, so many Hollywood stars clamored for
her lens, hoping to be immortalized by it. Arnold’s 10-year series of Marilyn
Monroe catches the starlet in her most vulnerable, reflective moments. Joan
Crawford was all but obsessed with posing for Arnold, wanting close-up shots
taken of her beauty treatments, massages, whatever. One contact sheet is full
of a single Crawford eye, in mid-mascara application.
But Arnold was a “reluctant host to the imagery of Hollywood.” Her passion was
with people not accustomed to posing and modeling. Arnold’s favored studios
were Salvation Armies, churches, brothels, breweries, institutions, ghettoes.
In the sad, solemn faces in “Migrants on bunk beds” and the blank stares in
“Hydrotherapy for political prisoners psychiatric hospital (Moscow),” she seeks
an understanding of all her subjects and always assesses the situation’s truth.
From China to the former U.S.S.R. to Afghanistan and beyond, Arnold used her
camera and instinct to give people a silent voice.
As Arnold says, “Photographs live forever, which is more than you can say for
their subjects.” How lucky we are that Arnold’s craft will live forever.
Works
Various artists
Wild About Music
ongoing display
Ah, music, and all its ceaseless incarnations… it’s probably painted as much
as it’s played. And in this new West Sixth Street gallery, you have painted
music galore; if you want to see music, this is where to go.
In honor of “June Is Jazz Month,” the gallery has been displaying a collection
of paintings from the historic New York jazz club Birdland. Jazz greats from
Count Basie to Duke Ellington to Ella Fitzgerald (with a burning candle
standing guard) are captured in their grinning prime.
In addition, more than 15 artists — mostly Texans — have pieces on display.
The works are too varied to describe as a whole; suffice to say, the gallery
offers a new group of surprises around every corner. Freddie McCoo’s use of
colors and dimensions give his subjects a sleek kaleidoscopic background.
Jean-Pierre Weill’s three-dimensional, layered glass etchings allow shadows to
enter his world of floating musical notes. Ursula Coyote’s photos with oil
paints portray local musicians with a neon-like glow. Barrett DeBusk’s wire
sculptures join in the revelry.
That’s but a mention, but I think you get the picture. — Cari Marshall
This article appears in July 5 • 1996 and July 5 • 1996 (Cover).