ArtTalk – David Leopold

ArtTalk resumes on January 17 with a fascinating conversation with David Leopold, creative director of the Al Hirschfeld Foundation and author of “The Hirschfeld Century: Portrait of an Artist and His Age,” which was published to coincide with a major retrospective that Leopold curated for the New York Historical Society. The book won universal acclaim. The Washington Post called it an “instant classic,” and Amazon selected it for its “Top Books of 2015.” 

Leopold became interested in the artwork of Hirschfeld when, more than 30 years ago, he was researching Ben Solowey’s series of charcoal drawings of Broadway performers, opera singers and dancers called “Theatre Portraits.” Leopold discovered that Solowey’s drawings frequently ran side by side with Al Hirschfeld’s legendary theatre work. He reached out to the artist for more information and soon became his archivist, visiting Hirschfeld at least once a week in his studio for 13 years.

Today he co-hosts the popular Hirschfeld Century Podcast, nominated as “Best New York City Podcast” by the 2020 Apple Awards.

Leopold has organized exhibitions for institutions around the country, including the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge, and the Field Museum in Chicago. Internationally, he has curated shows for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Filmmuseum in Frankfurt and Berlin. He has curated a number of exhibitions at the Michener Art Museum, and he runs the Studio of Ben Solowey in Bedminster, PA, the only intact studio for the region’s golden age of painting.