Irving Penn, Resonance, Palazzo Grassi, until December 31, 2014
For the first time, the Palazzo Grassi museum is according its space to photographic art, in a retrospective devoted to the career of outstanding American photographer Irving Penn (1917-2009). Of the exhibition's 130 photographs dating from the late 1940s to the early 1980s, some are being shown to the public for the first time. A number of motifs that preoccupied Penn throughout his lifetime - such as the notion of time and the frailty of life - are evident at this showing. Among the most famous exemplars are works from his small trades series, which Penn photographed in the 1950s and which depict people practicing professions that the photographer felt were on the way of dying out, including newspaper boys, street vendors, carpet sellers and chimney sweeps. Also on display are Penn's legendary portraits of celebrities, including Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Marlene Dietrich and Truman Capote. A special section features still lifes, which the photographer was passionate about. Incidentally, the first Penn photograph to be published was a still life. It appeared on the cover of the October 1943 edition of the American Vogue magazine. Despite Penn's subsequent cooperation with a host of other media and commercial clients, Penn remained a faithful contributor to Vogue until his death in 2009.
Campo San Samuele 3231
www.palazzograssi.it