The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Untitled (51205)

Untitled (51205)

1959
(American, b. 1933)
Paper: 50.8 x 61 cm (20 x 24 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 about a teenage gang named the Jokers.

Description

Shown here on the Coney Island boardwalk, from left to right, are gang members Junior Rice, Bob Powers, and Lefty, who “was a pretty tough guy in the gang and then he went to jail for about a year,” according to Powers. “He came out and he just lost it. He wasn’t the same guy. Something happened and nobody knew what. . . . We protected him a bit, but he caught a couple of bad beatings and lost his reputation. He ate a lot of pills one night and never woke up. His mother found him dead. OD’d in bed at 19. He was the first in the group to die from a drug overdose.”
  • Bruce Davidson: Brooklyn Gang. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 25, 2020-June 13, 2021).
  • {{cite web|title=Untitled (51205)|url=false|author=Bruce Davidson|year=1959|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2018.685