One of the 20th century's most important and influential photographers, Irving Penn became known for his arresting images and mastery of printmaking techniques. At a time when photography was primarily viewed as a documentary tool, he approached the medium with an artist's eye and expanded its creative potential, both in his professional and personal work. His fashion photographs appeared in Vogue magazine from the 1940s onwards, but he also produced portraits of writers, artists, celebrities, children and tradesmen, as well as nudes and still lifes, finding beauty even in decaying fruit or cigarette ends.
Penn's photographic style has been praised for its precision and elegance. His eye for surprising details, combined with the formality of his compositions and dramatic contrasts of chiaroscuro illumination, give his works their distinctive visual character regardless of subject matter. In a career that spanned nearly 70 years, Penn's aesthetic and technical skill earned him accolades in both the artistic and commercial worlds. He pioneered a revival of earlier printing techniques, investigating 19th-century methods such as platinum and palladium printing that offered greater control over the subtle variations and tonalities he sought.
Born in 1917 to immigrant parents in Plainfield, New Jersey, Penn attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Arts from 1934-38 and studied with Alexey Brodovitch in his Design Laboratory. His first photographic cover for Vogue magazine appeared in October 1943 and he would continue to work at the magazine throughout his career. In the 1950s, he founded his own studio in New York and began taking advertising photographs alongside his private, experimental work, including the Nudes series. In the early 1970s, Penn closed his Manhattan studio and immersed himself in platinum printing in the laboratory he had constructed on the family farm on Long Island. There he created his groundbreaking Cigarettes series, which was shown in his first exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1975, as well as his Street Material series, shown at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in 1977.
The first retrospective of Penn's work was organised by The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1984 and toured internationally to countries including Japan, France, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Israel, Italy and the UK. He donated his archives to the Art Institute Chicago in 1995, and established the Irving Penn Foundation in 2005 to promote knowledge and understanding of his artistic legacy, including the diversity of techniques, mediums and subject matter that he explored. Recent exhibitions of the artist's work include Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. (2015) and Centennial at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2017), which travelled to the RMN - Grand Palais, Paris; C/O Berlin, the Instituto Moreira Salles, São Paulo, and the De Young Legion of Honour Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, USA.
Photo: Irving Penn, Autoportrait, Cuzco, 1948. Gelatin silver print, 34 x 26.4 cm. © The Irving Penn Foundation
2024
Irving Penn: Centennial, De Young Legion of Honour Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, USA
2023
The Bath, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
Irving Penn. Portraits d’artistes. Photographies de la Collection Pinault, Villa Les Roches Brunes, Dinard, France
Irving Penn, Chefs d'œuvre de la collection de la MEP, Les Franciscaines, Deauville, France
2021
Irving Penn: Photographism, Pace Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2020
Irving Penn: Underfoot, Tate Modern, London, UK
2019
Irving Penn: Still Life, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
Irving Penn: Still Life, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
Irving Penn, Pace Gallery, Hong Kong
Untroubled: Irving Penn, Works from the Pinault Collection, Mina Image Centre, Beirut, Lebanon
Irving Penn, Pace Gallery, Palo Alto, CA, USA
2018
Irving Penn: Centennial, C/O Berlin, Amerika Haus, Berlin, Germany
Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA, USA
Irving Penn: Paintings,Hamiltons Gallery, London, UK
Irving Penn: centenário, Instituto Moreira Salles, São Paulo, Brazil
Irving Penn: Paintings, Pace Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Irving Penn: Worlds in a Small Room, Seen & Unseen, Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2017
Irving Penn, Grand Palais, Paris, France
Irving Penn: The Flavour of France, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS, USA
Irving Penn: Resonance, Fotografiska, Stockholm, Sweden
Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty, The Frick, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Irving Penn: Centennial, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA
Irving Penn: 1950, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Irving Penn: Fashion, Åmells, Stockholm, Sweden
Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN, USA
2016
Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, USA
Irving Penn: Personal Work, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2015
Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., USA
Irving Penn: Flowers, Hamiltons Gallery, London, UK
2014
Irving Penn: Resonance, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy
Irving Penn: Timeless Moments, Amells Konsthandel, Stockholm, Sweden
2013
Irving Penn: Cranium Architecture, Hamiltons Gallery, London, UK
Irving Penn: Diverse Worlds, Kumu Art Museum, Talinn, Estonia
Irving Penn: Underfoot, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Irving Penn: On Assignment, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2012
Irving Penn: Cigarettes, Hamiltons Gallery, London, UK
Irving Penn: Diverse Worlds, Moderna Museet, Malmö, Sweden
2011
Irving Penn: Ethnos, Bernheimer Fine Art Photography, Munich, Germany
Irving Penn: Le Noir et Blanc légitimé, Galerie Thierry Marlat, Paris, France
Irving Penn and Issey Miyake: Visual Dialogue, 21_21 Design Sight, Tokyo, Japan
Irving Penn: Radical Beauty 1946–2007, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
2010
Irving Penn: Archæology, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Irving Penn: Small Trades, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
Irving Penn: Small Trades, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris, France
Irving Penn: Small Trades, Hamiltons Gallery, London, UK
Irving Penn Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
2009
Irving Penn, 1917–2009, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
Irving Penn: Banquet, Galerie Thierry Marlat, Paris, France
Irving Penn: Small Trades, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2008
Close Encounters: Irving Penn Portraits of Artists and Writers, Morgan Library and Museum, New York, NY, USA
Irving Penn: Vessels, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2007
Irving Penn: In Flower, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Irving Penn, (Jane) Corkin Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Irving Penn, Camera Work, Berlin, Germany
2005
Irving Penn: Platinum Prints, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., USA
Irving Penn: Ethnographic, Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Underfoot: Photographs by Irving Penn, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2004
Irving Penn: Present Concerns, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Underfoot: Photographs by Irving Penn, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Dahomey (1967), Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX, USA
2002
Irving Penn, Hamiltons Gallery, London, UK
Dancer: 1999 Nudes by Irving Penn, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA
Earthly Bodies: Irving Penn’s Nudes, 1959-50, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA
Irving Penn: Still Life in Color 1947-2001, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Irving Penn circa 1948, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
1999
Irving Penn Regards the Works of Issey Miyake, Ginza Graphic Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1998
Irving Penn, Museo Colecciones ICO, Madrid, Spain
1997
Irving Penn, A Career in Photography, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Irving Penn: "Le Bain" (Irving Penn: "The Bath"), Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France
Irving Penn: The Small Trades (1950), Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
Irving Penn, Camera Work, Berlin, Germany
Irving Penn, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Irving Penn: Photographs from the Years 1949–1950, Ehlers Caudill Gallery Ltd., Chicago, IL, USA
Irving Penn: Photographs, Wildenstein Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Irving Penn: Retrospective, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
1996
Irving Penn, Jackson Fine Art, Atlanta, GA, USA
1995
Irving Penn, (Jane) Corkin Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Irving Penn, Fotografier. En donation till minne av Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn (Irving Penn, Photographs: A Donation in Memory of Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Irving Penn, Hamiltons Gallery, London, UK
1993
Irving Penn: Collection Privée/Privatsammlung (Irving Penn: Private Collection), Galleria Gottardo, Lugano, Switzerland
Irving Penn, Hamiltons Gallery, London, UK
1992
Irving Penn Poster Exhibition, Axis Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1991
Nature Morte, Hamiltons Gallery, London, UK
Irving Penn Selected Photographs, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, USA
Irving Penn 1948, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, NY , USA
Irving Penn: Portraits in a Corner, 1948, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
1990
The Small Trades, Hamiltons Gallery, London, UK
Irving Penn Master Images, National Museum of American Art/National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., USA
Irving Penn: Fourteen Cigarettes, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
Irving Penn, Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Irving Penn: Platinum Test Materials, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
Irving Penn: Vintage Prints from the Series "Earthly Bodies," 1949–1950, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, NY, USA
1989
Irvin Penn Photographs 1949–1975, Vibeke Levy Fine Arts, New York, NY, USA
Issey Miyake Poster Exhibition/i.i.i., Ginza Graphic Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Cranium Architecture, Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, NY, USA
1987
Irving Penn Retrospective, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Irving Penn, Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
1986
Irving Penn Photographs, Robert Koch Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
Irving Penn, Sporting d'hiver de Monte-Carlo, Monte-Carlo, Monaco
1984
Irving Penn, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
Irving Penn, Vision Gallery, Boston, MA, USA
1982
Irving Penn: Recent Still Life, Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY, USA
1981
Irving Penn: Photographs in Platinum Metals—Images 1947–1975, Marlborough Gallery, London, UK
Irving Penn: Photographs (on Assignment for Vogue), Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta, GA, USA
Irving Penn, Lunn Gallery, Washington, D.C., USA
Platinum Prints, Gallery 700, Milwaukee, WI, USA
1980
Earthly Bodies, Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY, USA
1979
Irving Penn, (Jane) Corkin Gallery, Toronto, Canada
Photography als Kunst 1879-1979 (Photography as Art 1879-1979), Tiroler Landesmuseum, Innsbruck, Austria
1978
Irving Penn Platinum Prints, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
Irving Penn, Silver Image Gallery, Seattle, WA, USA
1977
Irving Penn: Photographs in Platinum Metals—Images 1947–1975, Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY, USA
1976
100 Master Photographs, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
1975
I Platini di Irving Penn: 25 Anni di Fotografia (Irving Penn Platinum Plates: 25 Years of Photography), Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Turin, Italy
Irving Penn: Recent Works, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
1963
Irving Penn, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C. USA
1960
Photographs by Irving Penn, Alexandre Iolas Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2024
Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, Fashion Icon, MEP, Paris, France
2020
30 Years in Paris, Thaddeaus Ropac, Paris Pantin, France
2019
Photographic Lives: Robert Freson, Irving Penn, and the Portrait, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME, USA
2017
Penn/Warhol: Signs, Hamiltons Gallery, London, UK
2016
American Classics, Pace Gallery, London, UK
2008
Street & Studio: An Urban History of Photography, Tate Modern, London, UK
2007
Photography Now, Hackelbury Fine Art, London, UK
The Construction of the Other: The Archives of Imagination, a Selection from the Collection of the Fotomuseum Provincie Antwerp, Palais de Beaux-Arts/Bozar, Brussels, Belgium
2006
Fashion Photography, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MA, USA
2005
Recent Acquisitions 2005: Some Versions of the Portrait, International Center of Photography, New York, NY, USA
2004
Photography of the Fifties: An American Perspective, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA, USA
Tvari v tvar (Face to Face: The F. C. Gundlach Collection), Langhans Galerie, Prague, Czech Republic
1985
Shots of Style, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
1977
The History of Fashion Photography, International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, USA
1976
Masters of the Camera: Stieglitz,, International Center of Photography, New York, NY, USA
1975
Photography within the Humanities, Symposium and Exhibition, Jewett Arts Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA
Color Photography, Inventors and Innovators 1850–1975, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT, USA
1972
Alexey Brodovitch and His Influence, Philadelphia College of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA
1968
Photography as Printmaking, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
1965
Glamour Portraits, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
The Photo Essay, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
1964
The Photographer's Eye, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
1963
Points of View: Single Subject/Multiple Artists, Smithsonian Institute, washington, D. C., USA
1959
La Biennale di Venezia della Fotografia (Venice Biennale of Photography), Venice, Italy
Photography at Mid-Century, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, USA
1955
The Family of Man, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
1953
Contemporary Photography, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
1950
Color Photography, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
1948
In and Out of Focus, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA
Australia
National Portrait Gallery, Canberra
France
Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris
Musée d’Art contemporain, Strasbourg
Sweden
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
UK
Tate, London
National Portrait Gallery, London
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
USA
Art Institute, Chicago, IL
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, USA
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA