The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Irving Penn's Nudes, 1949-50. Now in his mid-eighties, Penn is one of the world?s finest photographers. Famous for portraiture, still life, and fashion work, he is less well known as a superb photographer of the female nude.
Irving Penn's Nudes, 1949-50
Drawings, Prints, and Photographs Galleries, The Howard Gilman Gallery,
2nd floor
Now in his mid-eighties, Penn is one of the world?s finest photographers.
Famous for portraiture, still life, and fashion work, he is less well known as
a superb photographer of the female nude.
His most important nudes were
made more than 50 years ago when he collaborated with several artists?
models in a series of sittings that were a personal and artistic antidote to
the ephemeral, surface world of the stylish ladies' magazines.
The nudes
are highly unorthodox by mid-20th-century standards: folded, twisted, and
stretched, with extra belly, mounded hips, and puddled breasts, their
fleshy torsos are sisters of Titian's or Rubens?s Venus.
Charged with
powerful physical and sexual energy yet somehow chaste, they are
among the most ambitious and successful nudes ever made.
Never the
subject of serious study, the great 1949-50 nudes are accompanied by a
volume with 53 plates that display Penn?s love affair with earthly
goddesses.
Accompanied by a catalogue.
Hours
Friday
9:30 a.m.-9:00 p.m.
Saturday
9:30 a.m.-9:00 p.m.
Sunday
9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Monday
Closed
Tuesday
9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Wednesday
9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Thursday
9:30 a.m.?5:30 p.m.
Closed
Mondays, January 1, Thanksgiving Day,
December 25
Visitors will not be permitted to enter the Museum after 5:15
p.m. on Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays,
and after 8:45 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Admission
Admission includes Main Building and The Cloisters on the same day. To
help cover the cost of special exhibitions, for which there is no additional
charge or special ticketing, we ask that you please pay the full
suggested amount.
Adults: $10.00 suggested
Students and Senior Citizens: $5.00 suggested
Museum Members and Children under 12 (with adult): free
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street
New York, New York 10028-0198
General Information: 212-535-7710