A Preview of Irving Penn’s Magnificent Career Retrospective at the Met
When shooting his first celebrity portraits, in the 1940s, Irving Penn put Salvador Dalí, Georgia O’Keeffe, and others in a tight corner, literally, by positioning them at the center of two angled screens in his studio. “He liked what happened psychologically to each person when they entered his space,” says Jeff Rosenheim, a co-curator of “Irving Penn: Centennial,” a sweeping survey devoted to the late photographer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, opening Thursday (through July 30). “His corner portraits push the personality of the subject forward.” On view will be more than six decades’ worth of Penn’s boldly economical fashion photographs, fleshy nudes, and portraits of the Quechua people, along with his monumental still lifes—all shot in his minimal setups. Adds Rosenheim, “Rather than hide the language of the studio, Penn wanted the viewer to see the artifice of it.”
1
Truman Capote, New York, 1948.
2
Marlene Dietrich, New York, 1948
3
Pablo Picasso at La Californie, Cannes, 1957
4
Cigarette No. 37, New York, 1972
5
Deli Package, New York, 1975
6
Single Oriental Poppy, New York, 1968
7
After-Dinner Games, New York, 1947
8
Cuzco Children, 1948
9
Girl Drinking (Mary Jane Russell), New York, 1949
10
Glove and Shoe, New York, 1947
11
Nude No. 72, New York, 1949–50
12
Ingmar Bergman, Stockholm, 1964
13
Fishmonger, London, 1950
14
Naomi Sims in Scarf, New York, ca. 1969
15
Ungaro Bride Body Sculpture (Marisa Berenson), Paris, 1969
16
Rochas Mermaid Dress (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), Paris, 1950
17
Three Asaro Mud Men, New Guinea, 1970
18
Three Dahomey Girls, One Reclining, 1967
19
Tribesman with Nose Disc, New Guinea, 1970
20
Two Miyake Warriors, New York, 1998
