20세기 가장 중요하고 영향력 있는 사진 작가 중 한 명인 어빙 펜(Irving Penn)은 시선을 사로잡는 이미지와 고도로 숙달된 인화 기술로 유명하다. 사진이 다큐멘터리 도구로 여겨졌을 때, 펜은 예술가의 눈으로 매체에 접근했으며, 직업적이나 사적인 작업 모두에서 매체가 지닌 창조적 잠재성을 확장했다. 그의 패션 사진은 1940년대부터 보그 잡지에 실렸을 뿐 아니라 작가, 예술가, 유명인, 아이들, 상인의 초상화는 물론 누드와 초상화를 제작했고, 심지어 썩어가는 과일이나 담배꽁초에서도 아름다움을 찾아냈다.
펜의 사진 스타일은 정확성과 우아함으로 찬사를 받아왔다. 디테일을 알아차리는 그의 놀라운 눈은 형식적인 구성과 빛과 어둠의 극명한 대비와 결합되어 작품의 주제와 관계없이 독특한 시각적 특성을 부여한다. 70여년 간의 작가 생활 동안 펜의 미학과 기술력은 미술계와 상업계 양쪽 모두에서 호평을 받았다. 그는 플라티늄(platinum)과 팔라듐(palladium) 인화처럼 19세기 방법을 고찰하여 초기 인화 기술을 부흥하는데 선구적이었으며, 이를 통해 그가 추구했던 미묘한 변화와 색조를 더욱 잘 통제할 수 있었다.
1917년 뉴저지 주 플레인필드의 이민자 부모 밑에서 태어난 펜은 1934년부터 38년까지 필라델피아 산업 예술 학교(Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Arts)에 다녔고, 알렉세이 브로도비치(Alexey Brodovitch)의 디자인 연구소에서 공부했다. 1943년 10월 보그 잡지의 표지에 그의 사진이 처음 실렸으며 작가 생활 내내 잡지사에서 일했다. 1950년대에 뉴욕에 자신의 스튜디오를 차리고, <Nudes> 시리즈를 포함하여 사적이고 실험적인 작업과 광고 사진을 함께 찍기 시작했다. 1970년대 초기, 펜은 맨해튼에 있는 자신의 스튜디오를 닫고 롱 아일랜드의 가족 농장에 세운 자신의 연구소에서 플라티늄 인화에 몰두했다. 1975년 뉴욕 현대 미술관(The Museum of Modern Art, New York)에서의 첫 번째 전시에서 획기적인 작품인<Cigarettes> 시리즈를 선보였고, 1977년 메트로폴리탄 미술관(The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)에서 <Street Material> 시리즈를 전시했다.
1984년 뉴욕 현대 미술관에서 펜의 첫번째 회고전을 기획했으며, 이후 이 전시는 일본과 프랑스, 스페인, 독일, 스웨덴, 이스라엘, 이탈리아, 영국 등을 순회했다. 그는 1995년 시카고 아트 인스티튜트(Art Institute Chicago)에 자신의 아카이브를 기증했으며, 2005년 어빙 펜 재단(Irving Penn Foundation)을 설립하여 자신이 탐구했던 다양한 기법과 매체, 주제 등 예술적 유산에 대한 지식과 이해를 도모하고자 했다. 최근에 스미스소니언 미국 미술관(Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.)에서《Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty》(2015)가 열렸으며, 그의 탄생 100주년을 기념하여 메트로폴리탄 미술관(The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2017)에서《Irving Penn: Centennial》이 기획되었고, 이후 이 전시는 RMN-그랑 팔레(RMN - Grand Palais, Paris)와 C/O베를린(C/O Berlin, Berlin), 모레이라 살레스 미술관(Instituto Moreira Salles, São Paulo)을 순회했다.
2024
Irving Penn: Centennial, Mop Foundation, A Coruña, Spain
Edge of Beauty, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris Marais, France
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 Marais, 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
2025
Corps et âmes, Bourse de Commerce, Paris, France
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