2017 marked the centenary of the birth of Irving Penn (1917-2009). Following its great success in New York and Paris and Penn’s exhibition The Flavour of France at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Paris (Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac has represented The Irving Penn Foundation in France in collaboration with Pace and Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, since September 2017), the Irving Penn: Centennial exhibition is travelling to Berlin, where it will be on view at C/O Berlin from 24 March to 1 July 2018. This is the most comprehensive retrospective of Penn’s work to date and it will be the first exhibition of his work in Berlin for twenty years. The core of the exhibition is some 190 works, promised gifts from The Irving Penn Foundation to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, among them the now-famous studies of Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, the most sought-after photo model of the time, who became Penn’s wife and muse. His body of work stretches from portraits of Pablo Picasso and Marlene Dietrich to abstract female nudes, from exquisite still lifes, elegant studies of flowers and cigarettes to glamorous fashion photos for Vogue. As The Irving Penn Foundation explains on its website, “Irving Penn was one of the twentieth century’s great photographers, known for his arresting images and masterful printmaking. Although he was celebrated as one of Vogue magazine’s top photographers for more than sixty years, Penn was an intensely private man who avoided the limelight and pursued his work with quiet and relentless dedication. At a time when photography was primarily understood as a means of communication, he approached it with an artist’s eye and expanded the creative potential of the medium, both in his professional and personal work.” I am delighted to be able to present you with a unique portfolio of images by this great artist during this 10th Anniversary year of #59 Magazine.

Copyright Mart Engelen