Philadelphia Museum of Art - Information : Press Room : Press Releases : 2006

May 5th, 2006

Museum Goes on Summer Vacation with Exhibition of Snapshots of Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days (and Nights)

Summer is a special time stirring up memories of long days, long dusks, and the smell of fresh cut grass. The Philadelphia Museum of Art gears up for the summer of 2006 with a warm, breezy exhibition of more than 50 photographs from the collection that reflect the sizzle of the summer season from a variety of perspectives.

Summer Vacation: Photographs from the Collection is on view in the Julien Levy Gallery from May 13–September 30, 2006. The exhibition, coordinated by Katherine Ware, Curator of Photographs in the Alfred Stieglitz Center, calls to mind the many rituals of summertime. Sailors, swimmers, and sunbathers are featured in pictures by Harry Callahan, Elliott Erwitt, David Graham, and Ray K. Metzker, while the pleasures of the playground, pick-up games of stickball, bike riding, and gardening, are seen through the lenses of William Klein, George Krause, and Danny Lyon. Several photographs by Robert Adams capture the sultry quality of summer nights, while other works on view depict scenes of camp, carnivals, cookouts, and company picnics.

The regional custom of heading “down the shore” is captured in Jack Carnell’s photographs of Wildwood waterslides and the roadside attractions of Long Beach Island, N.J., while Burke Uzzle portrays summertime fun in hot spots like Daytona Beach, Fla., Coney Island, N.Y., and Atlantic City, N.J.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest museums in the United States, with a collection of more than 227,000 works of art and more than 200 galleries presenting painting, sculpture, works on paper, photography, decorative arts, textiles, and architectural settings from Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States. Its facilities include its landmark Main Building on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the Perelman Building, located nearby on Pennsylvania Avenue, the Rodin Museum on the 2200 block of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and two 18th-century houses in Fairmount Park, Mount Pleasant and Cedar Grove. The Museum offers a wide variety of activities for public audiences, including special exhibitions, programs for children and families, lectures, concerts and films.

For additional information, contact the Marketing and Communications Department of the Philadelphia Museum of Art at (215) 684-7860. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th Street. For general information, call (215) 763-8100, or visit the Museum's website at www.philamuseum.org.