Irving Penn : beyond beauty
(Book)

Exhibition held at Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, District of Columbia, October 23, 2015-March 20, 2016; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, April 15-August 14, 2016; Art Center, Lesley University, Boston, Massachusetts, September 10-December 16, 2016; Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Tennessee, February 24-May 21, 2017; and Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, Kansas, September 30, 2017-January 7, 2018.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 238) and index.

Famous for his fashion portraits and experimentation with still life images, Irving Penn (1917-2009) ranks as one of the foremost photographers of the 20th century. In an illustrious career that spanned nearly 70 years, Penn was a master of both black-and-white and color photography, and his revival of platinum printing in the 1960s and 1970s was a catalyst for significant change in the art world. Drawing from the extensive holdings of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, including a major gift from The Irving Penn Foundation, this magnificent catalogue compiles 161 of Penn's iconic images, including a number of unpublished works. Beautifully designed and illustrated, this book accompanies the first retrospective exhibition of Penn's work in nearly 20 years and features photographs from all stages of his career, including street scenes from the late 1930s, celebrity portraits, Parisian fashion photographs, and more private studio images. Merry A. Foresta's captivating essay introduces this photographer to a younger generation and delves into Penn's use of photography to respond to social and cultural change, speaking to the depths of human existence.