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Irving Penn: The Platinum Prints

June 19 – October 2, 2005
West Building, Ground Floor, Inner Tier Galleries G30 through G34

Installation view of Irving Penn: The Platinum Prints, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Gallery Archives

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

Overview: 83 works in this first major retrospective of American photographer Irving Penn included examples of the major genres in which Penn worked, such as portraits, fashion studies, ethnographic subjects, and still lifes. 12 of Penn's Platinum Test Materials collages, consisting of test strips associated with the finished platinum prints, were also on view. The exhibition was selected from photographs the artist donated to the National Gallery in 2002.

Organization: The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Sarah Greenough, curator and head of the department of photographs, was the curator.

Sponsor: The exhibition was sponsored by Merrill Lynch. It was supported by the Trellis Fund and The Ryna and Melvin Cohen Family Foundation.

Attendance: 85,816

Catalog: Irving Penn: Platinum Prints, by Sarah Greenough. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, in association with Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2005.

Penn, Irving
American, 1917 - 2009

View Related Collection Information: Photographs