The National Arts Club presents an opening reception for the exhibition George Platt Lynes: Selections from the Frederick R. Koch Collection.
George Platt Lynes (1907-1955) was a self-taught American photographer active from the 1920s to the 1950s. He began his career photographing cultural luminaries such as Gertrude Stein, Yul Brenner, Katherine Hepburn, and members of the New York City Ballet, newly formed by his close friend George Balanchine. It is for those portraits, along with extravagant fashion work for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar that he is best remembered today. However, Lynes’ true passion and most ground-breaking work lay in more intimate, often nude portraits of his friends, many of whom were artists and celebrities including Jean Cocteau, Paul Cadmus, and George himself. At the time of their creation, these works were too controversial to exhibit, let alone publish or sell. Thus, what Lynes considered his most important work remained largely unseen. Works in this exhibition are provided by the Frederick R. Koch Collection and have not been exhibited since Mr. Koch purchased the Lynes residual estate from Bernard Perlin, the American painter who was executor of the estate.