Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Illusions of the Photographer: Duane Michals at the Morgan

October 25, 2019 through February 2, 2020

Contemplative, confessional, and comedic, the art of Duane Michals exerts an appeal that transcends the conventional audience of photography. Since the early 1960s, Michals has worked past what he sees as the limitations of the camera: he writes in the margins of his prints, creates sequences of images that explore intangible human dilemmas (doubt, mortality, desire), and derives poetic effects from technical errors such as double exposure and motion blur. Illusions of the Photographer combines a full career retrospective—the first on Michals to be organized by a New York City museum—with an artist’s-choice show, as Michals plumbs the Morgan’s vaults for treasures both revered and long-forgotten.

Michals leads viewers on a tour of his mind as he engages heroes and mentors as varied as William Blake, Edward Lear, and Saul Steinberg and matches wits with stage designers, toy-makers, and his fellow portraitists of the past and the present.

The exhibition will be accompanied by screenings of short films—Michals’ preferred medium in recent years. An audioguide narrated by the artist will complement a wide-ranging interview in the exhibition’s catalog.

Illusions of the Photographer: Duane Michals at the Morgan is made possible by the support of the Thompson Family Foundation.

Duane Michals (b. 1932), The Illuminated Man, 1968. Gelatin silver print. Purchased on the Photography Collectors Committee Fund 2018.37. © Duane Michals, Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York.

Publication

Selected Images

John F. Collins (1888–1990)
Multiple Self-Portrait
1935
Gelatin silver print
The Morgan Library & Museum, Purchase on the Photography Collectors Committee Fund, 2014.93.

Duane Michals
A Story About a Story
1989
The Morgan Library & Museum, 2018.47. © Duane Michals, Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York.

Duane Michals
A Letter From My Father
1960–1975
Gelatin silver print
The Morgan Library & Museum, Gift of Duane Michals, 2019.78. © Duane Michals, Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York.

Duane Michals
Andy Warhol
Gelatin silver print
© Duane Michals, Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York.

Duane Michals
Self–Portrait Asleep in a Tomb of Mereruka Sakkara
1978
The Morgan Library & Museum, 2018.42. © Duane Michals, Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York.

Duane Michals
The Illuminated Man
1968
Gelatin silver print
The Morgan Library & Museum, 2018.37. © Duane Michals, Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York.

Duane Michals
Warren Beatty
1966
The Morgan Library & Museum, 2018.35. © Duane Michals, Courtesy of DC Moore Gallery, New York.

Henry Pearson (1914–2006)
128th Psalm (Study for "Five Psalms")
1968
Chinese ink on heavy paper
The Morgan Library & Museum, Gift of Regina and Lawrence Dubin, MD, 2009.7.