Legs on a Wall, New York, U.S.A., from “Recent Developments”

Description

Born in Paris of Russian parents, Elliott Erwitt came to the United States and studied at the New School for Social Research. During his service in the army during World War II, Erwitt met Robert Capa, one of the founders of the Magnum Photos co-operative in New York. Capa encouraged Erwitt to join Magnum after the war, which he did in 1953.
Relishing the odd juxtaposition and humorous moment, Erwitt captures one of the incongruities offered by a large city like New York. In his Legs, a row of four-story buildings acts as a foil for a gigantic pair of inflated women’s legs draped over the façade of a building in the middle distance. The diagonal recession of the space and the rectilinear regularity of the buildings are shattered by the swelling forms of the legs and feet dangling halfway down the building.

Carole McNamara, Assistant Director for Collections & Exhibitions
on the occasion of the exhibition New York Observed: The Mythology of the City
(July 13 – September 22, 2003)