Irving Penn: Beyond Reality

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‘Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty’, organised by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, is the first retrospective of Penn’s work in nearly 20 years. The exhibition presents over 140 photographs including iconic images from his oeuvre as well as previously unseen or never exhibited photographs. Irving Penn (1917–2009) is one of the best-known American photographers of the 20th century. In a career that spanned almost 70 years, Penn worked on professional and artistic projects across multiple genres. He was a master of both black-and-white and colour photography, and he was key to the revival of platinum printing in the 1960s and 1970s. We reviewed the exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

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Ball Dress by Olivier Theyskens for Nina Ricci (2007), Irving Penn. © Condé Nast

Bee (1995), Irving Penn. © The Irving Penn Foundation

Woman in Moroccan Palace (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn) (1951), Irving Penn. © Condé Nast

Red Rooster (2003), Irving Penn. © The Irving Penn Foundation

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