By Michelle Chaplow

Irving Penn is an American photographer who was born in the spring of 1917 and died in the autumn of 2009.

This artist has fascinated me ever since I visited the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1998 and stood mesmerized by the still-life photograph After Dinner Games (which shows brandy, coffee, playing cards, dice and poker chips), shot by Penn in New York, 1947. I bought the poster from the exhibition, which over the years faded from the Spanish sun – so much so that in 2009, when Irving passed away, so did his poster.

Penn was one of the first photographers to shoot portraits on a white or grey background, creating portraits with minimal, simplistic elegance. He used this technique to photograph many, including Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp Marlene Dietrich and W.H.Auden

The artist’s ranking

Irving Penn now ranks at no 536 in the Artfacts league (as of 26 April 2012).

A fact of life?

Towards the end of Penn’s his life – from 2006 to 2009 – his ranking made a slow, steady decline. Since his death, the graph has reversed and interest in, and value of, his works has gradually increased. Ironic that the value of his work declined as the artist passed away, and the turning point of interest in his oeuvre coincided with his death – as often happens in the art world.

How many exhibitions?

Irving Penn has had 56 exhibitions in the USA, 21 in Germany and 13 in Spain.

With whom?

41 of his exhibitions have been shown alongside Richard Avedon; 29 each alongside Robert Mapplethorpe and the great Henri Cartier-Bresson; Penn also showed his work together with Diane Arbus and André Kertész, in 28 shows apiece.

Favourite exhibition venues

MoMA – the Museum of Modern Art in New York – has been a favourite venue for Penn’s work with 11 shows in total, followed by the Hamiltons Gallery in London, which has put on five exhibitions.

Going solo

The solo exhibitions of Irving Penn have totalled 46: the first took place in 1975 at MoMA, and from 1984 he averaged one solo show a year until 2002, when the rate of exhibitions rose – from 2002 until the present date, we see an average of three or four solo shows per year.

Up and coming exhibitions

From 31 July until 16 September this year, Tate Britain in London will hold an exhibition of 150 classic 20th-century photographs, which take London as their key subject; Penn is amongst the artists. Penn followers will have another chance to view a solo exhibition this summer, at the Moderna Museet Malmö in Sweden, from 16 June until 2 September.

After Dinner Games sale

Atfter Dinner Games

In April 2006 After Dinner Games ‘Penn/Condé Nast’ copyright sold at Christie´s for $84,000.

At the time of writing After Dinner Games by Irving Penn is currently for sale at Michael Shapiro Photographs. http://www.shapirogallery.net/

Irving’s work in portraiture, fashion and still life has simplicity and style, and he will always be one of my favourite contemporary photographers of all time.

Investing in Penn´s work?

There is a trend of increasing value, underlined by the prevailing notion that prices increase after an artist´s death, which can often be compounded by commercial “spin” from dealers and galleries. In some cases, mismanagement of an artist’s estate after their death can depress the market, and their work can actually decline in value due to the new availability of more photographs or prints on the market.

A more “natural” curve

In Penn´s case, the gradual decline in the years immediately before he passed away in 2009, and the gentle, graceful rise since, appears “natural” in my mind, underlining the true value of the work of this magnificent contemporary photographer.

“A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it. It is, in a word, effective.” Irving Penn

My photography career commenced in 1992; I first picked up a manual SLR camera in 1989, one year after standing in front of Penn´s work. His work certainly “touched my heart and left me, the viewer, a changed person for having seen it”.

Blog Post, April 2012