Howard Greenberg Gallery Celebrates the Saul Leiter Centennial with a Comprehensive Survey

At first glance, Saul Leiter's photograph Pull, made around 1960, could trick us into believing that what we have before us is an impressionist painting. A cityscape is blurred, and figures of flaneurs are equally given in a few strokes of colour and light. A closer inspection, however, reveals that it is just a wintery photo taken from behind a steamed window. 

Considered a pioneer of colour photography, Saul Leiter (1923-2013) left behind an enormous and unique contribution to the medium. His photos and paintings reveal an unobtrusive world that rolls beside us, made into works of art through the artist's unique vision. 

In collaboration with the Saul Leiter Foundation, Howard Greenberg Gallery from New York celebrates the centenary of Leiter's birth with an exhibition showcasing more than 40 photographs, paintings, and painted photographs of the late artist, many of which have never been shown in the US. 

Finding Inspiration in the Everyday Scenes

Saul Leiter photographed and painted almost every day of his life for over 60 years. He made a breakthrough as a pioneer of colour in the 1950s in New York and continued his career as an influential artist whose works were celebrated for their radically innovative compositions and painterly quality. 

Instead of traveling the world in search of inspiration, Leiter was drawn by the everyday scenes, which he masterfully transformed into extraordinary events through his unique gaze. 

Often photographing just a few blocks from his apartment in lower Manhattan, he captured intimate moments between people, outdoor scenes, and often, his camera led him inside flats as well. Making photos outdoors or indoors did not matter much to Saul, as he managed to reveal the magic of the ordinary in every setting. 

A Collector of Minute Fragments

"Approaching the work of Saul Leiter is complex. Because of the cross-disciplinary dimension of his work, the artist/photographer occupies a very special place in the history of photography," noted Anne Morin, the director of diChroma photography in Madrid who curated the recent exhibition on Saul Leiter at Les Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles, France. 

As a collector of minute fragments of the world around him, Leiter wove a body of work of extraordinary density. Known as one of the great masters of mid-century color photography, his body of work extends far beyond this territory.

The exhibition surveys Leiter's black and white and colour photographs, including portraiture and cityscapes from the 1940s to 1950s, his abstract watercolours and other paintings, painted photographs, and his fashion photography from Harper's Bazaar from around the 1960s. 

Although Leiter was initially interested in painting, and he moved to New York City to pursue this career, he soon met with the abstract expressionist painter Richard Pousette-Dart, who was experimenting with photography. This friendship and the photography exhibitions Leiter saw in New York soon inspired him to change mediums, leading to the creation of one of the most impressive photo legacies of the 20th and early 21st centuries.  

Saul Leiter at Howard Greenberg Gallery

The exhibition Saul Leiter: Centennial will be on view at Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York until February 10th, 2024. The exhibition coincides with the publication of a new book, Saul Leiter: The Centennial Retrospective published by Thames & Hudson.

Featured image: Saul Leiter - Halloween, c.1952. Gelatin silver print. Signed in ink and photographer's credit stamp on print verso