MOPA Exhibit Commemorates Work of Photographer Irving Penn

<figure id="attachment_48243" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-48243" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" src="http://laprensa-sandiego.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Copy-of-penn_cr…; alt="" width="300" height="294" class="size-medium wp-image-48243" srcset="https://dev-laprensa.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Copy-of… 300w, https://dev-laprensa.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Copy-of… 1024w, https://dev-laprensa.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Copy-of… 1320w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-48243" class="wp-caption-text">Irving Penn (Courtesy / MOPA)</figcaption></figure>
Known for boundary-breaking experimentation and for being a fixture of the world’s most prestigious fashion magazines, the work of Irving Penn is now on display in San Diego.
<a href="https://mopa.org/">The Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA)</a> in Balboa Park is now hosting the exhibit Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty, a retrospective compilation of work captured by one of the most lauded photographers of the last century.
Beginning its tour around the United States last year, the exhibit commemorates the 100th anniversary of Penn’s birth and is organized by the the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The photographs on display include pieces donated by the artist to the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 1988 and 100 additional photographs donated by the Irving Penn Foundation for public viewing. 
Included in the museum’s free admission, Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty runs a chronological gamut starting with Penn’s first travel photographs taken during the 1930s and ends with his post-modern still life concepts, which critique notions of natural beauty and American consumer culture. 
“He was very experimental because he spanned such a long period of time in his work,” explained Debra Klochko, MOPA executive director and chief curator. “He loved the medium of photography and believed it was more than a medium for expressing the beauty of fashion, but one to show the beauty of everyday people and street life.”
Born in 1917, Penn began his career in the arts during his college days as an illustrator for Harper’s Bazaar. While working this job, he was also developing his talents as a painter, photographer, and industrial artist. His vision was informed by his technical studies and early travels throughout the American South and later to Mexico City, then a mecca for surrealist artists. 
During his time in the world of fashion, Penn took the lead in creating an art direction for high-end retailer Saks Fifth Avenue. His work would also grace the covers of Vogue and its European catalog of magazines. Truman Capote, Leontyne Price, and Salvador Dali are a few of the contemporary personalities captured by his lens during this phase of his career. 
Later becoming a world-travelling photographer, Penn photographed Peruvian alpaca farmers, Moroccan royalty, European street workers, and African tribal members, among many more subjects, with the same technique and purpose as he would Parisian high-fashion models, something unthinkable at the time. 
The end point of this exhibit, showing Penn’s work after the year 2000, decentralizes previous ideas seen in his work for magazines and advertisements and poses several questions about what should be photographed. 
“Visitors to the museum will be able to see why Irving Penn is considered one of the most important American photographers of the 20th century. We are lucky to have such a wonderful range of work available for everyone to come see,” said Klochko. 
Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty will be on display at MOPA through Feb. 17, 2019.