Muskegon, Museum of Art

Shout Freedom! Photo League Selections from the Columbus Museum of Art

September 2 through November 7, 2010

Jerome Liebling, Butterfly Boy, New York; 1949

Rosalie Gwathmey, Shout Freedom, 1949

Morris Engel, Harlem Merchant, New York; 1937

Walter Rosenblum, D-Day Morning, Omaha Beach; 1944

Marvin E. Newman, Halloween, South Side; 195

Lisette Model, They Honor their Sons, about 1940-1942

Walker Gallery B

The Photo League was a non-profit collective of idealistic New Yorkers who thought that their gritty images of urban life could effect social change. Its members were a who’s who of 20th-century photographers—Berenice Abbott, Lewis Hine, Lisette Model, Aaron, Siskind, W. Eugene Smith, Paul Strand, and Weegee among them. Yet the group is one of the least known in American photographic history. Founded in 1936, the Photo League comprised both professional and amateur photographers. It was the heart and soul of social documentary photography until 1951, when the group disbanded amid McCarthyism and rumored links to Communism. By then, however, League members had already amassed a significant body of work. In 2001, the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, acquired a major collection of more than 150 black and white vintage photographs by 70 members, dating from the entire history of the League. This exhibition features a selection of 55 of the finest examples.

Shout Freedom! was organized by the Columbus Museum of Art and Arts Midwest. The national tour of this exhibition has been made possible through American Masterpieces support from the National Endowment for the Arts. The MMA presentation of the exhibition is underwritten by the Patrick O’Leary Foundation of the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund. Program support provided in part by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs