Irving Penn is widely regarded as one of the 20th century’s greatest photographers, renowned for his pared-down aesthetic, exemplary printmaking, and artistic experimentation. A regular contributor to Vogue magazine for more than six decades, he revolutionized fashion photography in the post-war period, positioning models against neutral backdrops to emphasize gesture and expression. Although best known for his psychologically penetrating portraits, Penn was a prolific artist whose career spanned 70 years and a wide array of interests.
Irving Penn, Rock Groups (Big Brother and the Holding Company and The Grateful Dead), San Francisco, 1967. Platinum-palladium print, 19 in. × 19 3/4 in. (48.3 × 50.2 cm). The Irving Penn Foundation. © The Irving Penn Foundation.
The major retrospective Irving Penn captures every period of that dynamic career behind the camera, beginning in the late 1930s and continuing into the first decade of the 21st century.
Organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and presented exclusively on the West Coast at the de Young museum, the exhibition brings together 197 works—including Penn’s portraits of celebrities, cultural luminaries, and laborers with the tools of their trades; abstract nudes and early documentary street scenes; compositions of wilting flowers, signage, and street debris; fashion studies and meticulous still lifes—along with a newly enhanced section dedicated solely to Penn’s photographs from the 1967 San Francisco Summer of Love.
“Irving Penn is a giant of 20th-century photography whose portraits and still lifes were transformative for the medium,” remarked Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “We are delighted to present the most extensive retrospective of his work to date here in San Francisco, epicenter of the countercultural movements Penn so masterfully captured in his vibrant photographs from the 1967 Summer of Love. The energy of those images underscores the longstanding impact of Bay Area culture within the United States and, indeed, around the world.”
The exhibition Irving Penn explores the photographer’s profound interest in the ephemerality and complexity of the human condition, evidenced not only in his portraits, but also in the masterful still lifes that bookend his career.
Approaching photography as a fine art long before it was widely recognized as such, Penn paired nuanced composition with an uncanny talent for observing human expression, attitude, and demeanor. He was celebrated as one of Vogue’s top photographers, creating a record of 20th-century cultural history in his images. The exhibition presents Penn’s photographs of such leading lights of the screen as Marlene Dietrich and Audrey Hepburn, renowned designers Gianni Versace and Yves Saint Laurent, and foremost writers Truman Capote and Joan Didion. But Penn’s egalitarian spirit and heightened photographic sensitivity made his portraits of everyday people—tradespeople, street vendors, and residents of Cuzco, Peru—equally moving and powerful.
In 1967, commissioned by Look magazine, Penn traveled to San Francisco to record the Summer of Love, photographing Hells Angels, hippie communities, local rock bands the Grateful Dead and Big Brother and the Holding Company, and members of the avant-garde San Francisco Dancers’ Workshop. His impetus to “look into the faces of these new San Francisco people through a camera in a daylight studio” would memorialize the defining countercultural movement of the 1960s on film. An eight-page spread, “The Incredibles” was published in the magazine early the following year, and is featured in the exhibition at the de Young in an exclusive, enhanced section devoted to Penn’s San Francisco series. Also on view are his rarely seen, experimental photographs of nude workshop dancers performing American choreographer Anna Halprin’s The Bath.
“Penn’s images of West Coast residents capture a moment of electrifying social change, which forever altered the cultural landscape of the Bay Area,” remarked Emma Acker, Curator of American Art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and organizing curator of the exhibition. “The Fine Arts Museums’ presentation of Irving Penn includes an expanded selection of these portraits, emphasizing our Museums’ location at the epicenter of the countercultural movements of the 1960s, particularly the Summer of Love.”
Opening at the de Young museum on March 16 and running through July 21, Irving Penn is the most comprehensive retrospective of the renowned photographer to date, revealing his extraordinary artistic versatility and range.
Exhibition Organization
The exhibition is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in collaboration with The Irving Penn Foundation, and in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Images
01) Irving Penn.Audrey Hepburn, Paris,1951. Gelatin silver print. Image: 13 3/4 x 13 7/16 in. (35 x 34.2cm). The Metropolitan Musem of Art, Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation, 2021. © Condé Nast.
02) Irving Penn.Hells Angel (Doug), San Francisco, 1967. Gelatin silver print. Image: 18 13/16x 19 11/16in. (47.8 x 50 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation, 2021..© The Irving Penn Foundation.
03) Irving Penn.Mouth(for L'Oréal), New York, 1986. Dye transfer print. Image: 18 5/8 × 18 1/4 in. (47.3× 46.4 cm).The Irving Penn Foundation. .© The Irving Penn Foundation.
05) Irving Penn.Balenciaga Rose Dress, Paris, 1967. Gelatin silver print. Image: 13 3/8 x 11 in. (34 x 27.9cm). The Metropolitan Musem of Art, Promised Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation. © Condé Nast.
06)Irving Penn.Rochas Mermaid Dress (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), Paris, 1950. Platinum-palladium print.Image: 19 7/8 x 19 11/16 in. (50.5 x 50 cm). The Metropolitan Musem of Art, Promised Gift of The IrvingPenn Foundation. © Condé Nast.
07) Irving Penn.Woman in Chicken Hat (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), New York, 1949. Gelatin silver print.Image: 15 1/16 x 14 3/8 in. (38.3 x 36.5 cm). The Metropolitan Musem of Art, Promised Gift of The IrvingPenn Foundation. .© The Irving Penn Foundation.
08) Irving Penn.Still Life with Watermelon, New York, 1947. Dye transfer print. 24 1/8 × 19 3/4 in. (61.3× 50.2 cm). The Irving Penn Foundation. © Condé Nast.
09) Irving Penn.Marlene Dietrich, New York, November 3, 1948. Gelatin silver print. 10 x 8 1/16 in. (25.4x 20.4 cm.). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation, 2021..© The Irving Penn Foundation.
10) Irving Penn.Hippie Family (Kelley), San Francisco, 1967. Platinum-palladium print. 16 5/8 × 14 3/16in. (42.2 × 36 cm). The Irving PennFoundation. .© The Irving Penn Foundation.
11) Irving Penn.Joe Louis, February 15, 1948. Gelatin silver print. 9 15/16 x 8 1/16 in. (25.3 x 20.5 cm.).The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation, 2021. © Condé Nast.
12) Irving Penn.Two Miyake Warriors, New York, June 3, 1998. Platinum-palladium print. 21 x 19 5/8 in.(53.4 x 49.8 cm.). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation, in memory ofIssey Miyake, 2022. .© The Irving Penn Foundation.
13) Irving Penn.Le Corbusier, 1947. Gelatin silver print. 9 15/16 x 7 15/16 in. (25.3 x 20.2 cm.) TheMetropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation, 2021. 2021.72.29. © Condé Nast.
14) Irving Penn.Issey Miyake, New York, May 16, 1988. Gelatin silver print. 15 11/16 x 15 11/16 in. (39.8x 39.8 cm.). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation, 2021. © The IrvingPenn Foundation