Street Dance

Rudy Burckhardt (1914–1999), whose photographs and films of New York have inspired a cult following, made images of the city’s architecture, streets, and inhabitants in a singular style—apolitical and seemingly uncomposed—that broke with tradition and influenced younger generations of photographers. From iconic views of New York’s skyscrapers, to close-up architectural details, to storefronts splashed with advertising signage, to New Yorkers walking their streets and riding their subways, the variety of Burckhardt’s subject matter conveys his never-ending fascination with the city’s scale and diversity. The 90 photographs presented in Street Dance: The New York Photographs of Rudy Burckhardt express the artist’s sense of wonder about New York and invite viewers to share his pleasure in the city’s unexpected moments and unexplored places.

Concurrently, the Museum also presents Under New York Skies: Nocturnes by Yvonne Jacquette, exploring the work of Burckhardt’s widow, the celebrated realist painter Yvonne Jacquette (b. 1934). The two exhibitions offer the first-ever opportunity to examine together the work of this celebrated artistic partnership.

The publication Picturing New York: The Art of Yvonne Jacquette and Rudy Burckhardt accompanies the exhibitions and looks at the place the couple held in the New York art world from the late 1930s to the present. Co-published by Bunker Hill, the book features essays by Andrea Henderson Fahnestock and Vincent Katz and an introduction by Bill Berkson.