The Pinault Collection continues its policy of “beyond the city walls” projects, with an exhibition produced and presented by the Mina Image Center in Beirut, Lebanon for its inauguration from January 16 to April 28, 2019: fifty images, from the collection, which span the career of one of the most famous photographers of the twentieth century: Irving Penn.
This exhibition entitled “Untroubled” is a free interpretation of “Resonance” presented at the Palazzo Grassi in 2014. By taking up the principle of a thematic hanging promoting the dialogue between images, this selection, more concise, highlights the stability of this a work that runs through the ages without trembling and remains an indelible modernity. “Untroubled” highlights the immutability of the photographer’s work.
Including famous images, like his fashion photographs, the exhibition is based around some emblematic series such as Petits métiers (small trades) or Cranium architecture but also offers other topics developed by the artist throughout his career such as the Still Lifes or Societies of the World.
Showcasing Irving Penn’s work for the first time in the Middle East, and what’s more in this new venue for contemporary photography, is a strong message: it shows that the great masters are an integral part of the future aspirations of this new Lebanese institution. It is to offer the work of this photographer with unshakable stability, a major source of inspiration for new generations of artists. It is also and above all a beautiful way to anchor the Middle Eastern art scene in a history of world art, whose inspiration has no boundaries. Finally, despite the instabilities that the Arab world encounters, Beirut remains a serene city where the arts flourish and culture never dies.
Matthieu Humery
Untroubled: Irving Penn
Works from the Pinault Collection
January 16 – April 28, 2019
Mina Image Center, Beirut, Lebanon
