Irving Penn retrospective at the Grand Palais, Exhibition, Tickets, Paris: 21 September 2017 - 29 January 2018

The show was a major success at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and presents a full panoramic scope of the photographer’s seventy year career, showcasing over 200 prints all produced by Penn himself. The striking diversity of Penn’s oeuvre is put into focus, from his extremely successful career at Vogue, to his fascinating documentation of ethnic tribes around the world. The show is laid out chronologically, which proves very effective as his career trajectory was visibly truncated theme by theme.

Pseudo-surrealist still life snapshots of ‘objets trouvés’ and portraits of posing celebrities seem to be directly addressing the medium of photography, interrogating its relationship to ‘fine art’ and traditional painting. This concept of self-aware art is brought out later in his career through his experimentation with different printing methods, and his photographs of other artists. The public is privy to amusing and glamorous anecdotes from his life as a photographer of the rich and famous. For instance, Pablo Picasso allegedly refused to see Penn, who had arrived at his house for a scheduled photoshoot, until Penn climbed over a fence and broke. Even then, a truculent Picasso refused to take off a dramatic black cape — the resulting image turned out to be one of Penn’s most iconic. His still lives and portraits gave way to highly stylised fashion shoots, and then to close up images of the nude female form. In later life, Penn became a determinedly intrepid traveller and his shots of various aboriginal and native peoples are fascinating, as is the video footage of these shoots taking place.

At once glamorous and challenging, Irving Penn’s work is sure to prove just as popular in Paris as it did in New York. The show runs until the 29th January 2018.

Grand Palais, Galeries Nationales

 3,avenue du Général Eisenhower 75008

Opening Days and Times

Wednesday-Monday: 10.00-20.00

Tuesday: closed