For more than three decades, artist David Levinthal has examined the popular culture and social mores reflected in toys and miniatures. He pierces the mythology of tradition and identity, playing on collective notions of nostalgia. In a series of work praised as being the most indicative of his style, Levinthal presents images of hand-painted baseball figurines photographed with the oversized 20x24 polaroid camera. Using both antique and recently manufactured figurines, he re-creates some of the most legendary moments of baseball's history.

Author Biography

David Levinthal, born in San Francisco in 1949, has been working with toy figures and tableaux as the subject matter for his artwork since 1972. In January of 1997, the International Center of Photography presented a survey of his work from 1975 to 1996. He has received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and was named a 1995 Guggenheim Fellow. His work is included in numerous museum collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum, and the Menil Collection. Levinthal's previous monographs include I.E.D.: War in Afghanistan and Iraq (powerHouse, 2009), and Hitler Moves East (Laurence Miller Gallery, 1989), among others. Jonathan Mahler, is the author of Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning (Picador, 2006), and The Challenge (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008) among many other works.