George Platt Lynes

Scaife Gallery 1 Mar. 13–Aug. 8, 2027

Photographer George Platt Lynes enriched creative life in New York City in the 1930s and 1940s with his ambitious and multifaceted art. To be photographed by Lynes was to enter a world of refined style, liberated desire, and artistic possibility. A self-taught craftsman of the medium and an intuitive master of studio lighting, he created thousands of images both for commercial use and private consumption, imbuing each with love and candor. His image repertoire, which is long overdue for consideration in its fullness, has since exerted an undeniable influence on subsequent generations of artists and on various trajectories of American visual culture.

This exhibition features some 120 photographs revealing the full scope of the artist’s work in the studio—from lavish fashion imagery for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar and commercial work for luxury brands to his stylized portraits of celebrities, his dance photography for the New York City Ballet, and his inimitable male nudes. At their very best, Lynes’ images transcend genre and artfully disclose the intimacies of his life—from friends and lovers to artists, writers, poets, choreographers, and the many dynamic figures of the era who influenced Lynes and were influenced by him. Drawn from private and public collections, including the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, the show represents a rare opportunity for museum visitors to explore in depth the life and career of one of the most consequential photographers of the twentieth century.

The exhibition is organized by Eric Crosby, Henry J. Heinz II Director, Carnegie Museum of Art, and Vice President, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.

About the Artist

George Platt Lynes was born in 1907 in East Orange, New Jersey, and raised in an affluent household with a minister father and socially prominent mother. As a teenager, he struggled at boarding school, so in 1925, his parents sent him to Paris for college preparatory studies. There he befriended Gertrude Stein and became immersed in her vibrant circle of avant-garde artists and writers. Upon his return to the US in 1926, Lynes briefly attended Yale University before leaving school to pursue a literary life in New York City.

In 1927 he inherited some photography equipment and began taking portraits of his family, friends, and lovers. Among them were publisher and museum professional Monroe Wheeler and poet and novelist Glenway Wescott, who would remain influential creative and romantic forces in Lynes’ tumultuous and brief life. By 1929, he committed himself to the vocation of photography and began making a living as a celebrity portraitist while also advancing his experiments with male nudes. In the early 1930s Lynes began exhibiting his photographs and rapidly gained success with editorial fashion commissions for Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Town & Country, as well as luxury brands. In 1935, he became the first official photographer for the American Ballet (now the New York City Ballet), and his success continued through the war years.

The wartime death of his lover and studio assistant George Tichenor and a phase of professional disillusionment prompted the artist’s sudden move to Los Angeles in 1947 where he worked on assignment for Vogue. A period of financial instability followed, and he returned to New York in 1948 where, as tastes were changing, commercial opportunities for the artist declined. As a result, he dedicated his creative energy to his male nudes in the early 1950s as his health began to fail. Diagnosed with lung cancer, Lynes passed away in December 1955 at the age of 48. Before his death, he destroyed much of his work, but he also entrusted a large collection of negatives to the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University.

Lynes’ photographs have been collected widely by museums such as Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washinton, D.C; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia; Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Centre Pompidou, Paris; among many others.

A photo of a man — George Platt Lynes, Untitled (Self Portrait), 1942, Carnegie Msueum of Art, William T. Hillman Photography Fund, © Estate of George Platt Lynes

Support

Carnegie Museum of Art’s exhibition program is supported by the Carnegie Museum of Art Exhibition Fund and The Fellows of Carnegie Museum of Art.

Carnegie Museum of Art is supported by The Heinz Endowments and Allegheny Regional Asset District. Carnegie Museum of Art receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.