David Leopold

David Leopold is an author and curator who has organized exhibitions for institutions around the country including the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the Norman Rockwell Museum at Stockbridge, the James A. Michener Art Museum, and the Field Museum in Chicago. Internationally, he has curated shows for the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Filmmuseum in Frankfurt and Berlin. He organized the archive of Al Hirschfeld’s work for the artist visiting Hirschfeld in his studio at least once a week for thirteen years until the artist’s death in 2003. Leopold is now the Creative Director for the Al Hirschfeld Foundation, where he co-hosts The Hirschfeld Century Podcast. His book, The Hirschfeld Century: A Portrait of the Artist and His Age, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 2015 to coincide with a major retrospective that Leopold curated for the New York Historical Society has won universal acclaim. The Washington Post called it an “instant classic.” Amazon listed it as one of the “Top 100 Books of 2015.” His other books include To Stir, Inform, and Inflame: The Art of Tony Auth (Camino Books 2012), David Levine’s American Presidents (Fantagraphics, 2008); Irving Berlin’s Show Business: Broadway-Hollywood-America, (Harry N. Abrams, 2005 and listed as a “Top Gift Pick” by the Boston Globe and New York Times); Hirschfeld’s Hollywood (Abrams, 2001). He also authored a number of monographs on under-appreciated artists for various museums. He works out of his office as Director of The Studio of Ben Solowey, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania where he organizes bi-annual exhibitions of Solowey’s works and his contemporaries in Solowey’s magnificent handcrafted studio. Leopold is also the Picture Editor of the award-winning literary magazine, The Lincoln Center Theater Review. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and Pennsylvania Heritage. He served as consultant on the PBS/WNET series Broadway: The American Musical and the Oscar nominated documentary, The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story. In September 2016, Leopold received the Joseph and Joan Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity at Lincoln Center.