Hirschfeld's New York

Remarkable for their movement and expression, conveyed with only a few well-placed stokes of a pen, the drawings of Al Hirschfeld have beguiled the American public for nearly 80 years.

His images range from the Broadway theatre to the broader cultural and political life of New York City which have occupied the artist's imagination for his entire adult life.Hirschfeld's drawings of 1920s Harlem, Times Square bars, the Algonquin Round Table, Central Park and World War II swing dancers are more than cunning displays of skill; they are important visual records of a time and cultural landscape that no longer exist.

His inventive, amusing maps of the city, many reproduced here, record the individuality of New York's neighbourhoods.