He began as a fashion photographer, but he became famous for his amazing portraits. What better way to celebrate the genius of this American artist than to base a show solely on his portraits? New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has already begun an exposition of over 180 works covering the entire duration of Avedon’s career, beginning with some of his early shots from the 1940s. The heart of the installation is comprised of powerful portraits of artistic, political, and intellectual figures from the 1950s through the 1970s, and it contains large-scale murals, perhaps the largest ever realized in the genre.

Some of his most beautiful portraits from the series “In the American West” will be included in addition to an intense series of portraits taken of the artist’s father just before his father’s death. Rounding out the exhibition is a selection of portraits of important artists such as John Cheever, Roy Lichtenstein, and Harold Bloom.

In the Howard Gilman Gallery, coinciding with and in a way completing the Avedon show, the Metropolitan is staging another exhibition entitled “Portraits: A Century of Photographs”, which investigates the theme of the portraitist. Currently being presented in the Howard Gilman Gallery, the exhibit, which opened on 10 September, is comprised of 50 masterpieces from the first 100 years of the genre, from the first French and American daguerrotypes to the work of Diane Arbus.

26.9.2002-5.1.2003
Richard Avedon: Portraits
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue, New York
T +1-212-570-3951 F +1-212-472-2764
https://www.metmuseum.org

until 12.1.2003
Portraits: A Century of Photographs
The Howard Gilman Gallery
The Metropolitan Museum of Art