David Levinthal

cf. David Levinthal and Gary Trudeau, Hitler Moves East, A Graphic Chronicle, 1941-43 (New York: Laurence Miller Gallery, 1989), unpaginated

cf. David Levinthal, War, Myth, Desire (Rochester: George Eastman Museum, 2018), pp. 45-55

Situated between the uncanny and the historical, Hitler Moves East visualizes the downfall of Germany’s Army Group Center through the unique photographic lens of David Levinthal. This group of 10 photographs represents the most significant auction offering to date from Levinthal's pivotal early series. 

Hitler Moves East is a narrative series, with each photograph relating to specific missions undertaken by the doomed German military group. Levinthal animates each image using German war toys, creating a convincing photographic tableau to emulate the events 34 years after they transpired. These photographs were originally published in Hitler Moves East: A Graphic Chronicle, 1941-43 (1989), which was co-authored by Levinthal and Pulitzer prize-winning writer Garry Trudeau, who provide historical context to the photographs. In the preface, Trudeau praises the series, asserting that Levinthal “has set up an exquisite tension between the integrity of the object and the horror of its context, between the innocence of the facsimile and the insidiousness of the original. What emerges from it is a special sort of truth born of contrast” (Hitler Moves East: A Graphic Chronicle, 1941-43, 8). Trudeau highlights the persuasiveness of Levinthal’s photographs, which simultaneously pass as truth and imitation to present a visual history otherwise undocumented.