19 October 2017 – 8 January 2018

Thaddaeus Ropac presented its first exhibition of the iconic American photographer Irving Penn(1917-2009) in The Flavour of France in our Paris Marais gallery. Titled after a photographic essay published by Irving Penn in 1960, in which he celebrates what André Gide called the “horror of the approximate” that characterises French charm, the exhibition focuses on three different bodies of work: Nudes, Small Trades and artist portraits. Dating from the period 1947–1950, each reflects in its own way the close relationship Irving Penn maintained with France throughout his life, by contact with artists, frequent visits and by their idealised redolence. The exhibition coincides with the Irving Penn centennial retrospective at Grand Palais in Paris running from 21 September 2017 to 29 January 2018, previously at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Since September 2017 Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac represents The Irving Penn Foundation in France in collaboration with Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York.