An image by Irving Penn, once you’ve seen it, is impossible to forget. In his 70 years as a photographer of beautiful women, flowers, and a wide range of startling still-life objects—including crumpled cigarette butts, an old shoe, and a totemic coffee pot—he went far beyond his early reputation as a fashion photographer, becoming one of the 20th century’s most memorable artists.
“Irving Penn was an artist of uncommon virtuosity and grace, and one of the finest picture-makers and photographic technicians in the medium’s now 185-year history,” says Jeff Rosenheim, curator in charge of photographs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “From the start, Penn knew what he wanted from the camera and how to use it and some photographic materials to transform the world into a better, more interesting, and more beautiful place.”
On October 8, the Irving Penn Foundation is offering up 70 of his works in a stand-alone sale at Phillips, the first time the foundation has presented Penn’s works at auction. Tom Penn, himself an artist, is Penn’s only son and the executive director of the foundation. He recently filled me in on the thinking behind this historic event.
Tom Penn: There have been many exhibitions that bring up the repetitive, iconic images, and I felt very strongly, with the rest of the foundation, that we needed to bring new material to the forefront. And here we have the opportunity to show things that nobody has seen, and also to add in other items that we feel are very important, such as the paintings and watercolors that Penn did.
Dodie Kazanjian: Is there an exhibition in the works?
We’re planning many exhibitions. There’s going to be an exhibition in Rome in December of the collection from the MEP (Maison Européenne de la Photographie) in Paris of their collection of Penn. After that, there will be another exhibition in 2026. And we just closed the Metropolitan Museum Centennial Exhibition in A Coruña, Spain, which had an incredible attendance of 140-plus thousand people. That show had traveled from New York, where it opened, to the Grand Palais. It’s bittersweet now that that material has gone to bed for a number of years.
Phillips is also planning an exciting exhibition of the works in the lead-up to the sale, including the presentation of a selection of highlights opening at the house’s space on Park Avenue in the coming weeks.
