Miller performed with unique success on both sides of the camera. On show a selection of more than 140 images, mainly vintage photographs, celebrate her remarkable life and her art, and how each reflected and influenced the other. Curated by Mark Haworth-Booth.
curated by Mark Haworth-Booth
One of the most original and ambitious photographic artists of the twentieth century, Lee Miller (1907–1977) performed with unique success on both sides of the camera. Chronicling the diverse periods of her career, this exhibition begins with Miller's days as a model in the late 1920s and early '30s, continuing through her studio photography years in Paris and New York, her travels in Egypt and Eastern Europe, her days as a war correspondent, and finally to the relative tranquility of the post-war years at home in England.
A selection of more than 140 images, mainly vintage photographs, celebrate Miller's remarkable life and her art—and how each reflected and influenced the other. Organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum on the occasion of the 2007 centenary of her birth, the exhibition spans her extraordinary career as a photographer and is the first complete retrospective, exploring her transformation from artist's muse to ground-breaking artist.
The exhibition features extensive loans from the Lee Miller Archives in East Sussex, England, directed by Miller’s son Antony Penrose, among other sources. Ten photographs from the Museum’s collection are included in the traveling exhibition. Additional selections from the collection are featured in the Philadelphia venue, as are two photographs by Miller on loan from the Museum of Modern Art and one work from a private collection in New York.
Organizer
This exhibition is organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Sponsor
Exhibitions in the Berman and Stieglitz Galleries in 2008, including The Art of Lee Miller, are made possible by RBC Dain Rauscher
Coordinators
Katherine Ware • Curator of Photographs
Julia Dolan • Horace W. Goldsmith Curatorial Fellow in Photography
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th Street - Philadelphia