The Honickman Foundation

Julien Levy

Dreaming in Black and White: Photography at the Julien Levy Gallery
June 17 – September 17, 2006

In celebration of the centenary of the birth of Julien Levy, one of the most influential proponents of modern art and photography, the Philadelphia Museum of Art presented a major exhibition and published a comprehensive catalogue of Levy's collection of photographs.

Approximately 250 photographs, exhibited for the first time in five decades, were drawn from more than 2,500 images acquired by the Museum in 2001 in part as a gift from Levy's widow, Jean Farley Levy, and with a major contribution from longtime Philadelphia residents and philanthropists Lynne and Harold Honickman.

Julilen Levy emerged as a prominent art dealer in the 1930's and mounted the first exhibition in New York devoted to Surrealism. He operated his gallery from 1931 to 1948, with an initial focus on photography.

The exhibition included works by many American artists Levy exhibited, among them Walker Evans, Man Ray, Joseph Cornell and Lee Miller, for whom he organized the only solo exhibition of her lifetime.

The accompanying catalogue presented a study of this long-hidden collection for the first time. The publication includes reproductions of archival material related to Levy's gallery and the collection, including exhibit announcements and correspondence with artists.

Image Credits:
Top: Léonor Fini, 1936, Dora Maar (French, 1907-1997), Gelatin silver print, Philadelphia Museum of Art: The Lynne and Harold Honickman Gift of the Julien Levy Collection, 2001, © 2005 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Bottom: Chimneys, c. 1930, André Kertész (American, born Hungary, 1894-1985), Gelatin silver print, 8 3/4 x 6 5/16 inches, Philadelphia Museum of Art: The Lynne and Harold Honickman Gift of the Julien Levy Collection, 2001

Philadelphia Museum of Art – Julien Levy Collection

On September 20, 2001, the Philadelphia Museum of Art dedicated the Lynne and Harold Honickman Gallery in the Modern and Contemporary Wing in honor of the couple's generosity, which enabled the Museum to acquire the Julien Levy Collection. This acquisition was made possible by a gift, in part, from Levy's widow, Jean Farley Levy, and with a major contribution from philanthropists Lynne and Harold Honickman.


Julien Levy, Jay Leyda, (American, 1910-1988), Gelatin silver print 1932, 5" x 4", Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Julien Levy collection of photographs is a trove of nearly 2000 images amassed by one of the most influential and colorful proponents of modern art and photography in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s. More than 130 artists are represented in the collection, and it contains major and little known works by American and European photographers between the World Wars.

The collection also includes a superb group of 362 works by the French photographer Eugene Atget and prime examples by the American masters Anne Brigman, Man Ray, Paul Outerbridge and Lee Miller. In the important works by European photographers closely associated with the Surrealism movement, Max Ernst, Dora Maar, Roger Parry, Maurice Tabard, and Umbo are represented.

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