Julio Mitchel, Cuban American Julio Mitchel Statue of Liberty Photograph Silver Gelatin Photo, 1998

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Julio Mitchell (Cuban, b. 1942) 'Statue of Liberty' 'Statue of Liberty from Brooklyn Dated 1998 Dedicated to Chara Schreyer and … Read more Julio Mitchell (Cuban, b. 1942) 'Statue of Liberty' 'Statue of Liberty from Brooklyn Dated 1998 Dedicated to Chara Schreyer and Natalie for her Bat Mitzvah Fine Print 16in. x 10 1/2in Framed: 24in x 19 1/2in Born and raised in Cuba, Julio Mitchel moved to New York at the age of seventeen. He was born and raised in Cuba and has worked in Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru and Brazil. “Each culture is totally different and they have different racial mixes” A few months after the Cuban revolution, Mr. Mitchel, then 17, went to New York City. Though he had intended to be a lawyer, he didn’t enjoy school. He took a series of jobs as a photographic assistant, mostly to fashion photographers. While he was picking up technical skills, he developed the habit of regularly expressing his contempt for the fashion world. His life changed when he took a photography class with Lisette Model at the New School. He photographed in the Middle East and Northern Ireland but found himself somewhat lost — too artsy for newspapers and news magazines; too journalistic for art galleries. Mr. Mitchel received two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and published two exquisite books that have long been out of print, “Tu Me Amas?” (1991) and “Triptych” (1990). Mostly, he survived by teaching at the School of Visual Arts, Cooper Union and the New School. Photo projects have taken him to the Middle East and Northern Ireland and other areas of conflict as well as to Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru and Brazil. Mitchel has taken great care with the technical aspects of the medium, but the greater impact lies in his humanistic depiction of the societal conditions around him. His work exhibits the requisite empathy of great documentary photographers but his vision is rendered with the aesthetic control of a fine art photographer. Indeed, as a young photographer, Mitchel sought out the great W. Eugene Smith and it is easy to see Smith’s influence upon these beautiful gelatin silver prints. His vintage prints taken from the 1960s through the 1990s and depict the beauty and desolation and intrigue of the city by recording the lives of those who frequent the clubs and missions and synagogues and pool halls; and those who work the fish markets, the firemen who respond to desperate situations; the commuters on the ferries and trains and subways; the revelers and lovers at Coney Island or parading through Little Italy. Julio Mitchel has exhibited his photography widely, including at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and other major international museums. His photography is also represented in numerous permanent collections and has twice received major artist grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. He had major exhibitions at the Musée de L’Eysée, Lausanne, Switzerland and les Rencontres Internationales, Arles, France. Both monographs are now out of print. GRANTS Twice recipient of National Endowment for the Arts and New York Foundation grants and a New York State Council for the Arts grant Included in a major biennial Fotofest International COLLECTIONS Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, New York San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Musée de L'Elysée, Lausanne, SWITZERLAND Museum of Modern Art (IVAM), Valencia, SPAIN International Center of Photography, New York International Museum of Photography, Eastman House, Rochester, NY The Jewish Museum, New York Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC American University Museum, Washington, DC The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas Polaroid International Collection SOLO EXHIBITIONS Museum of Modern Art (IVAM), Valencia, SPAIN Muse'e de L'Elyse'e, Lausanne, SWITZERLAND Galerie Vier Berlin, GERMANY Rencontres Internationales, Arles, FRANCE Galeria El Conteiner, Quito, ECUADOR Leubsdorf Gallery, New York Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR Candela Books Gallery, Richmond, VA Teaching artist (Former Faculty) The Cooper Union, The School of Visual Arts and The New School. New York VISITING ARTIST Prague School of Photographic Studies, CZECH REPUBLIC Museum of Ministry of Culture, ECUADOR U.S.I.A., "Arts America" Program NICARAGUA Camera Obscura Art School, ISRAEL MONOGRAPHS "Do you love me?" IVAM Publishers, SPAIN "Triptych" Parkett Publishers, Zurich/New York From the collection of Chara Schreyer, From Dada artist Marcel Duchamp, to Minimalist masterworks by Frank Stella and Donald Judd to extraordinary Conceptual sculptures by Eva Hesse, Robert Gober, and Joseph Beuys, her collection included Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Mark Bradford, and Christopher Wool as well as female artists such as Georgia O'Keeffe, Louise Bourgeois, and Lee Bontecou. See less