IRVING PENN (B. 1917)
Lot 76

IRVING PENN (B. 1917)

Igor Stravinsky, New York, April 22 1948

Closed10 April 2008

Price Realised

USD 34,600

More Information

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IRVING PENN (B. 1917)
Igor Stravinsky, New York, April 22 1948
gelatin silver print, printed 1984
signed, titled, dated, 'Penn/Condé Nast' copyright credit, reproduction limitation and edition stamps (on the verso); from an edition of 25
9½ x 7½in. (24 x 19cm.)

Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York

Specialist note

'Sometime in 1948 I began photographing portraits in a small corner space made of two studio flats pushed together, the floor covered with a piece of old carpeting. A very rich series of pictures resulted.

This confinement, surprisingly, seemed to comfort people, soothing them. The walls were a surface to lean on or push against. For me the picture possibilities were interesting: limiting the subjects' movement seemed to relieve me of part of the problem of holding on to them.'
Irving Penn (Passage, Jonathan Cape, 1991, p. 50)

'A small, charming, finicky man, he came to be photographed wearing brand-new shoes, assumed this listening attitude when he was asked to imagine that there was a mouse across the room.'
Irving Penn (Moments Preserved, p. 139)