Pace Gallery is pleased to present Irving Penn: Photographism, an exhibition that brings together approximately 30 photographs, epitomizing Penn’s groundbreaking photographic style. Spanning from 1939 to the early 2000s, the featured works will be accompanied by rarely seen archival materials and preparatory sketches, which articulate the artist’s notion of “photographism.”
Taking place on the third floor of 540 West 25th Street in Chelsea from January 8 – February 13, 2021, the exhibition proposes that Penn coined this neologism to underscore his photography’s arresting clarity and reductivism, born out of his antihierarchical crosspollination of mediums. Organised in an unprecedented way, the exhibition will trace through its six distinct groupings of works the various artistic mediums and movements that shaped Penn’s practice.
Though trained as a painter, Penn began working in the 1940s as a photographer for high-fashion magazines, notably Vogue, one of the few sites where experimental photography could be exhibited at the time. By integrating the printed page but also distinguishing itself from this busy ground, Penn’s work radically modernized various genres of photos, from still life and portraiture to editorial fashion photography.
His unique stylistic approach or photographism consisted in a formal distillation that drew from the fine arts, such as drawing, painting, and sculpture, and the more commercial graphic arts, such as typography and graphic design. Early works included in the exhibition, such as The Tarot Reader (Jean Patchett & Bridget Tichenor) (1949) and Fish Made of Fish (1939), for example, point to the primacy of drawing in Penn’s compositional choices and formal effects. Other works, such as Two Miyake Warriors (B) (1998) and Issey Miyake Staircase Dress (1994), reveal the importance of architecture as well as choreographed art forms in Penn’s sustained collaboration with fashion designer Issey Miyake. Even the medium of photography itself is considered in Penn’s self-reflexive works, such as Bedside Lamp (2006) and Girl Behind Bottle (Jean Patchett) (1949).
Of his work, Penn stated, “What I yearn for as a photographer is someone who will connect the work of photographers to that of sculptors and painters of the past.” Irving Penn: Photographism answers this call. Eschewing chronology and the photographic series as organizing principles, the exhibition will break with conventional modes of exhibiting photography in order to emphasize the different mediums and art movements that inspired Penn’s work throughout his seven-decade career. In its juxtapositions of disparate works, the show echoes Penn’s own intermixing of his art as seen in his annotated sketches on photographism. The presentation will also be accompanied by a slideshow highlighting the breadth of Penn’s work, from posters and Vogue spreads to tear sheets and ad campaigns.
Works by Penn will additionally be featured in an upcoming group exhibition titled Modern Look: Photography and the American Magazine at the Jewish Museum in New York, on view from March 12 – July 11, 2021. The presentation will feature over 150 works including photographs, layouts, and cover designs examining the influences of designers and photographers such as Penn on visual culture from the 1930s to 1960, further emphasizing Penn’s role at the forefront of photography and graphic design during these decades.
For more visit: www.pacegallery.com
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