MAS is pleased to announce the opening of the exhibition, By Way of Broadway: New York Photographs by Cervin Robinson, next Thursday, March 26. One of the most widely-published architectural photographers working today, Cervin Robinson began taking photographs at the encouragement of his father, an architect, when he was twelve, and this collection explores New York’s visual landscape comprising thirty views of the 17-mile length of Manhattan’s main street taken over the course of three decades.

The exhibition opens with a reception at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 25, at MAS. The event is free but reservations are required. RSVP online or call 212-935-2075. By Way of Broadway will be on display at MAS galleries through Wednesday, May 6, and the galleries are open to the public Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday: 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., and closed at all other times.

Robinson gravitated toward architectural subjects at a time, in his words, “when the only serious subject to most photographers was people, [and] because pictures of buildings seemed to me as satisfying as pictures of people were frustrating.”  By the mid-1950s, he was working for photographer Walker Evans in New York.  His first magazine commission was a monument of post-war modernism, the Seagram Building.  He was later commissioned to photograph the city of Cleveland for an exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art.  The place that has figured most prominently in Robinson’s work is the street where he lives, Broadway.

This exhibition has been curated by Gary Van Zante and organized by the Wolk Gallery at MIT School of Architecture and Planning in Cambridge, MA.  Support for exhibitions at MAS is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York Council on the Arts, a State Agency.   Additionally, MAS gratefully acknowledges the 42nd Street Fund for underwriting this exhibition.

Related Lecture
New York’s Main Street
Monday, March 30, 7:00 p.m., at MAS
Francis Morrone will provide context for Cervin Robinson’s photographs with an illustrated lecture on the architecture and history of Broadway, from Bowling Green to the Harlem River. $15, $10 MAS members. Purchase tickets online or call 212 935 2075.