Speaking with Hands
Photographs from The Buhl Collection

The works are drawn from the extensive collection of
well-known philanthropist Henry M. Buhl, who, after 30 years as an investment broker, gave up his job and set up in New York's SoHo to concentrate on photography. An active participant in many art institu-tions, Henry M. Buhl is also a member of the Photography Committee of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and his own Foundation awards a two-year grant for excellence in photography. Henry Buhl has also received the highest public recognition for his social commitment as founder and leader of the Partnership Organization, which works to return dropouts and the underprivileged to mainstream society through a highly successful vocational training program.

In the exhibition, the hand is depicted both literally, in the context of portraiture, for example, as well as figuratively, in terms of hand gestures captured in documentary images. Spanning the history of the photographic medium, the exhibition encompasses a comprehensive range of photographic practices, including scientific, journalistic, and fine-art photography, with a strong component of contemporary art.

Grouped into historically based categories, as well as thematic sections transcending strict chronology, this selec-tion of photographs will be on display in the three classical galleries on the third floor of the Museum. Included are works by major artists such as Janine Antoni, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, William Eggleston, Walker Evans, Nan Goldin, Andreas Gursky, Dorothea Lange, Annie Leibovitz, Robert Mapplethorpe, L'szl' Moholy-Nagy, Nadar, Shirin Neshat, Gabriel Orozco, Man Ray, August Sander, or Cindy Sherman.