The National Portrait Gallery presents an exhibition of photographs by Ida Kar Photographs, on view 10 March to 19 June 2011
In 1960 Ida Kar became the first photographer to have a retrospective exhibition at a major London art gallery. Fifty years after her groundbreaking installation at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery presents a re-evaluation of the work of one of the key figures of twentieth-century portraiture.
Despite receiving public and critical acclaim from her contemporaries, Ida Kar remains surprisingly little known. This exhibition of over seventy of Kar’s portraits highlights the significant role played by this woman photographer at the heart of the creative avant-garde.
Russian-born, of Armenian heritage, Ida Kar (1908–74) was instrumental in encouraging the acceptance of photography as a fine art. Her subjects were the most celebrated figures from the literary and artistic spheres of 1950s and 1960s Europe and Russia. They include artists such as Henry Moore, George Braque, Gino Severini and Bridget Riley and writers such as Iris Murdoch and Jean-Paul Sartre.
Taken in the environments in which they lived and worked, the photographs on display offer a fascinating insight into post-war cultural life. Comprising several iconic portraits and many never previously exhibited, the exhibition is drawn from the Ida Kar Archive, acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in 1999.
EXHIBITION
The exhibition will run from 10 March until 19 June 2011 in the Porter Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, London.
Admission £3. Concessions £2.50 / £2
Joint ticket with Hoppé Portraits £12 / £11 / £10
With Gift Aid (includes voluntary Gift Aid donation of 10% above standard price):
Admission £3.30. Concessions £2.75 / £2.20
Joint ticket with Hoppé Portraits £13.20 / £12.10 / £11
PUBLICATION
A fully-illustrated hardback catalogue showcasing 150 of Ida Kar’s remarkable portraits accompanies the exhibition, with essays by Karen Wright, writer and co-founder of Modern Painters magazine, and by the exhibition’s curator Clare Freestone, Associate Curator of Photographs, National Portrait Gallery. Price £25
EVENTS
Friday 18 March 2011
19.30
EXHIBITION TOUR: Ida Kar
Free with exhibition ticket
Led by Curator Clare Freestone
Saturday 9 April or Saturday 11 June 2011
11.00 – 15.00
Walk: Ida Kar’s World
Tickets: £15/£12 concessions and Gallery Supporters (ticket includes entry to the exhibition)
Led by Blue Badge Guide Sarah Ciacci, this walk will take you around Ida Kar’s artistic London – from 1 Litchfield Street in Soho where authors and painters mixed with socialites and the ‘demi-monde’, to the sites of Gallery One and her favourite watering hole. The day begins with an introductory talk examining her importance as a photographer.
Thursday 21 April 2011
19.00
EXHIBITION TOUR: Ida Kar
Free with exhibition ticket
Led by Curator Clare Freestone
Thursday 28 April 2011
18.30
TALK: Picturing the Artist
Tickets: £5/£4 concessions and Gallery Supporters
What do we expect an artist to look like? Peter Conrad and Alexandra Harris explore the image of the artist with reference to the current exhibition, Ida Kar: Bohemian Photographer.
Friday 13 May 2011
18.00 – 22.00
LATE SHIFT EXTRA: Capturing the Capital
Inspired by both the Hoppé and Ida Kar exhibitions, explore the city with a night of music, talks, film and photography across the Gallery.
Part of Museums at Night.
Thursday 19 May 2011
19.00
EXHIBITION TOUR: Ida Kar
Free with exhibition ticket
Led by Curator Clare Freestone
Thursday 9 June 2011
19.00
EVENING EVENT: Vintage Bromides
A Poet in the City event celebrating the photography of Ida Kar and the poets that sat for her. As well as plenty of poems, the event will explore the making of portraits in photography, theatre and poetry. Hosted by Poet in the City’s resident poet John Mole this event will feature Jillian Edelstein – amongst today’s award-winning and much-published portrait photographers and one of the judges for the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 – Bernard Kops – celebrated author of more than forty plays for stage and radio, nine novels and a new collection of poetry, This Room in the Sunlight, and a video contribution from Royston Ellis – Beat Poet and teenage sensation at the time of the Beatles’ first LP. With readings from actress Rosalie Jorda.
National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place WC2H 0HE, opening hours Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday: 10am – 6pm (Gallery closure commences at 5.50pm) Late Opening: Thursday, Friday: 10am – 9pm (Gallery closure commences at 8.50pm) Nearest Underground: Leicester Square/Charing Cross General information: 0207 306 0055 Recorded information: 020 7312 2463 Website/Tickets: www.npg.org.uk
Image: Ida Kar self-portrait by Ida Kar late 1950s NPG x134503