--- description: The exhibition show Radical Beauty presently showing at Fraenkel Gallery explores Penn's radical/creative/challenging investigation into what constitutes beauty. title: Irving Penn: Radical Beauty image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltada2fb45eb9f3998/6986844d55a8592df0a7f92f/canvas-head.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Irving Penn: Radical Beauty by [Phil Bicker](/author/phil-bicker/) ## Phil Bicker Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 15, 2011 6:00 PM CUT  Canvas Head With Hardware (Design by Jun Takahashi), New York, 206 Canvas Head With Hardware (Design by Jun Takahashi), New York, 206Irving Penn copyright by Conde Nast Publications, Inc by [Phil Bicker](/author/phil-bicker/) ## Phil Bicker Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 15, 2011 6:00 PM CUT Describing Irving Penn’s first pictures for Vogue, Editorial Director Alexander Liberman stated, “These images were so new, so divorced from current imaginative traditions, that they were a revelation.” Penn’s photographs continued in this vein for the duration of his working life. Irving Penn was a master photographer, with a distinctive and unique vision. He could move effortlessly from studio portraiture to still life, from creating images of high fashion to documenting the tribal people of Papua New Guinea. Many remarkable images by Penn are informed at the intersection of these disparate worlds, artistically colliding to astonishing effect. The exhibition, _Radical Beauty_ — presently showing at Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco—explores Penn’s groundbreaking investigation into what constitutes beauty and includes several images combining the genres of beauty, portrait, and still life photography to create compelling photographs of sculptural form. The exhibition also includes Penn’s early nudes as well as his portraits, _Hells Angel_ and _Five Okapa Warriors_. The show highlights the full range of his work — work that constantly questions and reinvents the parameters of physical beauty and photographic excellence.  Sweetie (A), New York, 1986 Irving Penn copyright by Conde Nast Publications, Inc Read more: http://lightbox.time.com/?p=15010#ixzz1SCTATrOi _The Exhibition_ Radical Beauty, 1946-2007 _at the_ [_Fraenkel Gallery_](http://www.fraenkelgallery.com/ "undefined") _runs from June 30 to August 20._  Canvas Head With Hardware (Design by Jun Takahashi), New York, 2006 Irving Penn copyright by Conde Nast Publications, Inc ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3779823/irving-penn-radical-beauty/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3779823/irving-penn-radical-beauty/"},"headline":"Irving Penn: Radical Beauty","datePublished":"2011-08-15T18:00:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:41:25.475Z","description":"The exhibition show Radical Beauty presently showing at Fraenkel Gallery explores Penn's radical/creative/challenging investigation into what constitutes beauty.","url":"https://time.com/3779823/irving-penn-radical-beauty/","keywords":["LightBox","photo essay"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltada2fb45eb9f3998/6986844d55a8592df0a7f92f/canvas-head.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Phil Bicker","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/phil-bicker/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltada2fb45eb9f3998/6986844d55a8592df0a7f92f/canvas-head.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Canvas Head With Hardware","caption":"Canvas Head With Hardware (Design by Jun Takahashi), New York, 206","creditText":"Irving Penn copyright by Conde Nast Publications, Inc","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-lightbox/","name":"LightBox"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3779823/irving-penn-radical-beauty/","name":"Irving Penn: Radical Beauty"}}]}] ```