Professor Emeritus Cookman curates “Intimate Alchemy”
Professor Emeritus Claude Cookman is one of three curators who assembled “Intimate Alchemy: David Levinthal’s XXX Polaroids.” The exhibition of prints from Indiana University’s Kinsey Institute opened with a reception at IU’s Grunwald Gallery on Sept. 6 and continues until Nov. 11.
Levinthal will speak at 5 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Grunwald Gallery of Art in the Fine Arts Building followed by a reception. His catalog essay on “Intimate Alchemy” can be viewed on the Kinsey Institute’s blog.
Levinthal burst onto the art photography scene in 1977 with the publication of “Hitler Moves East: A Graphic Chronicle, 1941–43.” From 1999 to 2001, he used a rail-mounted Polaroid view camera that produced 20-by-24-inch images to photograph plastic figures, creating his XXX series of 272 images.
“Intimate Alchemy” comprises 26 of those Polaroids. Several of the plastic figures are displayed near their corresponding images, allowing viewers to assess Levinthal’s transformations. The complete set of images and the 60 plastic figures are held by IU’s Kinsey Institute.