Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty

What Makes It Great? / Featured / September 26, 2016

Without a doubt, the photography show with the biggest buzz in Boston right now is “Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty.” Penn’s career retrospective is a traveling exhibit culled from a substantial gift of his work to The Smithsonian American Art Museum, making its only stop in the northeastern US at the Lesley University College of Art and Design (LUCAD) in Cambridge, MA through November 19, 2016. If you care about photography, this a must-see show.

Irving Penn, “Ball Dress by Olivier Theyskens for Nina Ricci”, New York, 2007, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation. Copyright © Condé Nast

Irving Penn, “Salvador Dali”, New York, 1947, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist. Copyright © The Irving Penn Foundation

Renowned for his fashion and celebrity photographs for Vogue magazine, Penn’s oeuvre extended well beyond those genres, testing the very concept of what constitutes beauty – thus the apt title of the show. A cerebral, genteel man, Penn’s legendary preparations and perfectionism are stylistically evident in his work spanning seven decades, from 1939 as a 22 year-old graduate of the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art to 2007, two years before his death at age 92. The LUCAD exhibit is spread across three galleries, roughly correlating with the chronology of Penn’s career, a tough feat to pull off with a sense of continuity or cohesion.

Irving Penn,”Young Boy, Pause Pause” American South, 1941, printed 2001, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation. Copyright © The Irving Penn Foundation.

Irving Penn, “Kerchief Glove (Dior)”, Paris, 1950, printed 1984, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Promised gift of The Irving Penn Foundation. Copyright © Condé Nast

Irving Penn, “Mouth (for L’Oréal)”, New York, 1986, printed 1992, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation. Copyright © The Irving Penn Foundation

The Vandernoot Gallery in LUCAD’s University Hall houses Penn’s earliest work of street photography, tracking his world travels in the prevailing documentary style of the 1930’s and 40’s. Although never schooled in photography, Penn’s training and talent in graphic art are easily discerned in this contemplative work. The two galleries in LUCAD’s Lunder Arts Center house the work for which Irving Penn became famous and infamous. From his elegant B&W fashion and still-life photography for Vogue in the 1940’s and 50’s to his commercial color work for companies such as L’Oreal in the 1980’s and beyond, Penn’s careful compositions epitomize the Modernist movement dominating the art, architectural and dance worlds: clean, crisp and contrasty. Present in the exhibit are many of Penn’s renowned “Corner Portraits” of celebrities wedged into cramped sets, which served to elicit unexpected and revealing mannerisms. With deft exploitation of positive and negative space in graphically powerful compositions, Penn’s stylish still-lifes easily made the leap from frozen foods and steel blocks to trendsetting ads for Chanel and Clinique.

Irving Penn, “Frozen Foods”, New York, 1977, printed 1984, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation. Copyright © The Irving Penn Foundation

Irving Penn, “Girl Behind Bottle (Jean Patchett)”, New York, 1949, printed 1978, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist. Copyright © The Irving Penn Foundation

Penn’s emblematic approach to photography became his signature: spare, highly organized compositions shot against simple studio backdrops of grey or white in directional natural light that accentuated line and form. This functioned as an equalizer of sorts, conferring the same conditions to celebrities as to native peoples across the globe, or to his abstracted nude studies and controversial photographs of detritus plucked from NYC streets. By employing similar settings for all subjects, he openly questioned assumptions regarding not only beauty, but our cultural values. Not surprisingly, there was much consternation over his “ethnographic” studies, which were interpreted by some as degrading and politically incorrect. Similarly, his “Underfoot” photographs of street garbage, enlarged to superstar status, caused a storm of controversy over its implication that fashion and trash are comparably beautiful.

Irving Penn, “Leontyne Price”, New York, 1961, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation. Copyright © Condé Nast

Irving Penn, “Sitting Enga Woman”, New Guinea, 1970, printed1986,Smithsonian AmericanArt Museum, Gift of the artist. Copyright © The Irving Penn Foundation

Irving Penn, “Nude No. 58”, New York, about 1949– 1950, printed 1976, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist. Copyright © The Irving Penn Foundation

Irving Penn, “Mud Glove”, New York, 1975, printed 1976, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist. Copyright © The Irving Penn Foundation

Irving Penn was a legend in his own time, helping to define and distinguish American Modernism. Interestingly, another artistic genius working the same beat, Richard Avedon, seemed to be an elephant in the room (pun intended regarding “Dovima With Elephants, 1955”) during the opening reception for the Penn exhibit last week. I was asked no fewer than three times which I favored (as if a choice is essential) and I detected hints of rivalry in the Curator Lecture by Merry Foresta. Both men were mentored by Artistic Director of Harper’s Bazaar, Alexey Brodovitch, as was another powerhouse, the famed graphic designer and fashion photographer Lillian Bassman, perhaps best known for extending her graceful B&W photographs into highly stylized imagery with darkroom manipulations such as cropping, solarizing, gauzes and bleach. If you’re excited about the Penn exhibit, you’ll discover a special treat in Bassman’s current solo show at Robert Klein Gallery on Newbury Street in Boston, on view through October 29, 2016. Each of these shows is delightful – seeing them in historical context with one another is even more satisfying.

“Looking Backward – The Evenings Ahead, Betty Biehn, 1956” by Lillian Bassman (courtesy of Robert Klein Gallery, Boston).

For more information about the Lillian Bassman exhibit, go to: http://robertkleingallery.com/exhibits.php

For a schedule of LUCAD’s extensive programming and additional information about the Irving Penn exhibit, go to: http://irvingpenn.gotolesley.org/events/

Feature Image: Irving Penn, “Irving Penn: In a Cracked Mirror (A)” (Detail), New York, 1986, printed 1990, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Promised gift of The Irving Penn Foundation. Copyright © The Irving Penn Foundation