Brassaï: The Eye of Paris

Seldom has a show been longer in the making: curator Anne Wilkes Tucker spent fifteen years readying this retrospective of the great photographer, outlasting colleagues at the Met, MoMA, and Art Institute of Chicago (all of whom ended up at odds with Brassaï’s contentious widow). Among the highlights of this triumph of perseverance: artfully arranged “candid” nightclub scenes, plenty of the signature romantically charged night views of Paris streets, underground shots in the city’s sewer tunnels, and close-ups of graffiti that seem to anticipate Abstract Expressionism—in all, some 140 black-and-white pictures and books, plus drawings, sculpture, and a film. Dec. 6, 1998–Feb. 28, 1999; travels to J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.