March 16–July 21, 2024 Photography Retrospective
Curated by Jeff Rosenheim and Maria Morris Hambourg Image: Irving Penn. Joe Louis, New York, February 15, 1948 (Printed July 9, 1948). de Young Museum, San Francisco.
de Young Museum
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive San Francisco, CA 94118 +1-415-750-3600
This EXCELLENT show, curated by Jeff Rosenheim and Maria Morris Hambourg, debuted at the Met in 2017 and features 175+ photographic works (Vogue fashion shoots, portraits of Audrey Hepburn, Truman Capote, Picasso, etc.) with a special section dedicated to San Francisco’s 1967 Summer of Love (Penn on assignment for Look magazine). The nudes, cigarettes, and Cuzco and Papua New Guinea series were all stand-outs IMO.
Irving Penn. The Twelve Most Photographed Models, New York, 1947. de Young Museum, San Francisco.Irving Penn. Hell’s Angels, SF, 1967 (Printed 1984). de Young Museum, San Francisco.
Penn’s artistic evolution is captured beautifully in this show. Starting as Alexey Brodovitch’sintern at Harper’s Bazaar in the late ’30s, he became Vogue’s IT fashion photographer in the ’40s and then the advertising world’s not-so-secret weapon from the ’50s onward.
Preview of Irving Penn. de Young Museum, San Francisco.
Irving Penn. Truman Capote, New York, June 1965 (Printed 1968). de Young Museum, San Francisco.
In 1972, Penn began working on his cigarette series after his longtime friend and mentor, Alexey Brodovitch, a heavy smoker, died from cancer the year before.
Irving Penn. Cigarette Series, 1972. de Young Museum, San Francisco.
Despite his commercial success, he remained an artist constantly in search of his Zen, which, ironically, had nothing to do with fashion.
Irving Penn. Single Oriental Poppy, New York, 1968 (Printed 1989). de Young Museum, San Francisco.Irving Penn. Sitting Enga Woman, New Guinea, May, 1970 (Printed 1984). de Young Museum. San Francisco.
Curator Jeff Rosenheim on the significance of the de Young’s Irving Penn Retrospective.
The exhibition’s catalogue by Jeff Rosenheim showcases one of the most extensive collections of Penn’s photographs ever assembled, featuring both renowned and beloved images along with works that have never been published before. It can be purchased at FAMSF stores and is also available for sale on Amazon.
PHOTOGRAPHERS, photography lovers, FASHION photography lovers, vintage fashion people, WILL ABSOLUTELY LOVE this retrospective.
Irving Penn. Nude No. 40, 1949–50 (Printed 1949–50). de Young Museum, San Francisco.Irving Penn. Christian Lacroix Duchesse Satin Dress, Paris, July, 1995 (Printed May 1996). de Young Museum. San Francisco.
🗓 Irving Penn closes July 21, 2024 at the de Young Museum. The show runs alongside Fashioning San Francisco: A Century of Style. All Access tickets for BOTH exhibitions are $38 and include admission to the museum’s permanent collection.
QUICK GUIDE: de Young Museum
⭐ EXHIBITIONS: Irivng Penn (March 16–July 21, 2024); Fashioning San Francisco: A Century of Style (Jan 20–Aug 11, 2024); Lee Mingwei: Rituals of Care[Beautiful interactive exhibition, where attendees can bring a sewing repair to be transformed into wearable art] (Feb 17–July 7, 2024); Nampeyo and the Sikyátki Revival (Closes Sept 15, 2024). ⭐ MUSEUM HOURS: Open Tuesday–Sunday 9:30 a.m.–5:15 p.m.; CLOSED MONDAY. *Hamon Observation Tower Closes at 4:30 p.m. ⭐ ADMISSION: General Admission Adults $20; Seniors 65+ $17; Students (w/ID) $11; 17 & Under FREE. *SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS +$12 (Includes access to permanent collections); *All Access Tickets are $38 and includes entry to Irving Penn and Fashioning SF; Membership (includes Legion of Honor) starts at $119. ⭐ DISCOUNTS: GeneralAdmission is FREE through the following programs:Free Satudays for Bay Area Residents (w/ID or postmarked envelope); Free First Tuesdays of the Month; Discover and Go (Free w/library card—may not apply to all counties); SF Museums for All (show your EBT or Medi-Cal card/ID); Public Transportation Discount (receive a $2 discount w/proof of receipt); Free Admission to all exhibitions w/Sotheby’s Preferred Membership. THE PERMANENT COLLECTION IS FREE TO VISIT AT 4:30 p.m. ⭐ EVENTS: (FREE) Sketching in the Galleries from 11–3 p.m. on June 29/Sculpture Garden; July 13/Gallery 28; July 20/Gallery 40; July 27/Sculpture Garden; Crochet Jam with Artist Ramekon O’Arwisters on July 27, 11–3 p.m; DOCENT TOURS: Irving PennTues–Sun 12:30 p.m; Fashioning San FranciscoTues–Sun 11:30 a.m. & 1:30 p.m. ⭐ FOOD: de Young Café. American and European classic cuisine. Indoor and outdoor dining (w/weather permitting on the Barbro Osher Sculpture Garden Terrace). Open Tuesday–Sunday 9:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
Currently on View at de Young Museum
Fashioning San Francisco: A Century of Style | de Young Museum | Jan 20–Aug 11, 2024 | A LOVE LETTER TO ART
Fashioning San Francisco: A Century of Style features 100 avant-garde designs from FAMSF’s fashion archive and Snap’s AR mirror. Closes 8/11.
Feb 17–July 7, 2024 | Lee Mingwei: Rituals of Care
Experience Lee Mingwei’s interactive installations and performances that place you at the center of radical acts of generosity and care.
Feb 27, 2021–Sept 15, 2024 | Nampeyo and the Sikyátki Revival
Celebrating the artistic ingenuity of Nampeyo, famed Tewa-Hopi potter, the de Young museum presents an installation of 32 pots from the collections of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. During her lifetime, Nampeyo (ca. 1860 – 1942) was, and remains today, perhaps the most renowned potter from the American Southwest. The single-gallery exhibition highlights Nampeyo’s work, juxtaposed with examples of Hopi pottery from her time. Exquisite ceramics made by ancestral Hopi artists demonstrate Nampeyo’s sources of inspiration, and artworks by four generations of her descendants attest to the master potter’s enduring legacy.
Coming Soon to de Young Museum (FAMSF)
Aug 10, 2024–Sept 28, 2025 | About Place: Bay Area Artists from the Svane Gift
This installation highlights contemporary Bay Area artists, and explores themes of belonging, ecological stewardship, and social justice.
Aug 10, 2024–Jan 12, 2025 | Robert Bechtle: Prints and Drawings
A lifelong resident of the Bay Area, American artist Robert Bechtle (1932–2020) captured local life in mesmerizing detail. A tribute to the artist’s life and work, this exhibition of prints and drawings celebrates Bechtle’s legacy and his close relationship with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. One of the earliest Photorealists, Bechtle worked from personal photographs of friends, family, nearby streets, cityscapes, and, above all, automobiles. Tinged with nostalgia, his most recognizable works memorialize moments that might otherwise be lost: San Francisco’s 34th Avenue fading into a bright blue sky or a parked Oldsmobile bathed in California sunshine. Drawn from our collection, the works on view — from the first abstract print he gifted to the Museums in 1961 to meticulous photo-based works from the final years of his career — reveal Bechtle’s stylistic evolution.
Oct 12, 2024–Feb 9, 2025 | First Major US Retrospective of Art Deco Icon Tamara de Lempicka Premieres at the de Young in October 2024
With over 120 works on display, Tamara de Lempicka will present a new perspective on the artist, her life, her work SAN FRANCISCO, April 29 - Through her liberal and glamorous lifestyle, artist Tamara de Lempicka (1894-1980) has become synonymous with the carefree spirit and opulence of the 1920s. Her paintings, combining a classical figural style with the modern energy of the international avant-garde, have cemented Lempicka as one of Art Deco’s defining painters, with an enduring influence on today’s pop culture landscape. Retrospective Tamara de Lempicka—the first exhibition in the United States dedicated to the artist’s full oeuvre—will reveal a new perspective on her life and design practice. In addition to her celebrated portraits, the more than 120 works on view will also include a number of rarely seen drawings, experimental still lifes from Lempicka’s early Parisian years, melancholic domestic interiors, as well as a selection of Art Deco objects, sculptures and dresses from the Fine Arts Museums’ collection that provide perspective on the artist’s process and historical context. The exhibition is co-curated by Furio Rinaldi and Gioia Mori. “We are thrilled to present the first major retrospective of Tamara de Lempicka’s work in the United States.
Currently on View at Legion of Honor (FAMSF)
April 6–Aug 18, 2024 | Japanese Prints in Transition: From the Floating World to the Modern World
This exhibition of Japanese woodcut prints highlights the transition from delicately colored ukiyo (floating world) prints to brightly colored modern world prints reflecting Western fashions and customs.
April 6–Aug 18, 2024 | Zuan-cho: Kimono Design in Modern Japan (1868–1912)
This exhibition features zuan-cho (kimono design books) from the Meiji era (1868–1912) that reimagined Japanese visual traditions in the context of modern Japan.
A LOVE LETTER TO ART RECOMMENDS
RELATED POSTS
Fashioning San Francisco: A Century of Style | de Young Museum | Jan 20–Aug 11, 2024 | A LOVE LETTER TO ART
Fashioning San Francisco: A Century of Style features 100 avant-garde designs from FAMSF’s fashion archive and Snap’s AR mirror. Closes 8/11.
RELATED VIDEOS
FAMSF’s Curator Talk with Emma Acker on Irving Penn
Content Preview Toggle Fashioning San Francisco: A Century of Stylede Young Museumde Young Museum HoursOverviewQUICK GUIDE: de Young MuseumCurrently on
