Yurek Shabelevsky, October 1939

George Platt Lynes American

Not on view

An accomplished fashion and portrait photographer, Lynes began photographing dancers in 1935 for Lincoln Kirstein’s and George Balanchine’s American Ballet Company (now New York City Ballet). His arresting portrait of Polish dancer Yurek Shabelevsky, who toured the United States in 1939, reveals Lynes’s fine sense for posing and lighting the human figure and echoes of his interest in Surrealism—first forged as a student in Paris five years earlier. Here, the dancer’s inky silhouette contrasts with the unveiled face and torso. Lynes would continue to photograph the male body, both nude and clothed, throughout his career.

Yurek Shabelevsky, October 1939, George Platt Lynes (American, East Orange, New Jersey 1907–1955 New York), Gelatin silver print

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