Irving Penn, Bee. New York, 1995. Smithsonian American Art Museum.

RVING PENN: BEYOND BEAUTY
23 OCTOBER 2015 – 20 MARCH 2016
SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM | WASHINGTON, DC, USA
The Smithsonian American Art Museum presents the first US retrospective in nearly 20 years of the work of Irving Penn (1917 – 2009), known for his iconic fashion, portrait and still life images that appeared in Vogue magazine.

Drawn entirely from the extensive holdings of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty includes the debut of 100 photographs recently donated to the museum by The Irving Penn Foundation. Also on view for the first time will be Super 8 mm films of Penn in Morocco, made by his wife Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, adding a vivid picture of the artist at work.
The exhibition will reveal the full expressive range of Penn’s art, featuring work from all stages of his career: street scenes from the late 1930s, photographs of the American South from the early 1940s, celebrity portraits, fashion photographs, still lifes and more private studio images.