Bill Cunningham: An Original Among Copies

Examining photography’s significant role in documenting and shaping our perception of sculpture, “The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today” opened at MoMA on Wednesday, to cross-generational effect. Although most of the work is historical-dating back to the origins of the medium-contemporary artists, such as Cyprien Gaillard, Rachel Harrison, and Erwin Wurm are strongly represented. Throughout the reception a smart crowd of critics, curators and collectors curiously studied the hundreds of pictures and ephemera on view in the museum’s top floor galleries, while artists and bohemians gathered under the stars in the museum’s sculpture garden. Turning a typically serene setting into a frolicking nightspot, the colorful crowd lingered late, enlivening the sleeping sculptures that surrounded it. Not to be missed was the Times’ camera-shy Bill Cunningham, celebrator of living sculpture, and one himself. PHOTO BY PAUL LASTER