The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 24, 2025

Untitled (40092)

1959
(American, b. 1933)
Paper: 27.9 x 35.6 cm (11 x 14 in.)
© Bruce Davidson/Magnum Photos
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

One of Davidson’s best-known series, Brooklyn Gang was inspired by a news story he read about a teenage gang called the Jokers.

Description

The Jokers roughhoused and fought among themselves but were not allowed to hurt each other. Real violence was reserved for those in other gangs or occasionally for civilians. “Did we fight with chains and pipes and knives? Yeah,” gang member Bob Powers reminisced years later. “Did people get stabbed? Yeah, people got stabbed. And people got their heads cracked open with bats.”
  • Tannenbaum, Barbara. “Bruce Davidson: The great American photographer’s series on Brooklyn street gangs taps themes of belonging and identity.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 60, no. 4 (Fall 2020): 6-7. Reproduced: P. 7; Mentioned: P. 6-7.
  • Bruce Davidson: Brooklyn Gang. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 25, 2020-June 13, 2021).
  • {{cite web|title=Untitled (40092)|url=false|author=Bruce Davidson|year=1959|access-date=24 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2018.679