Ida Kar: Bohemian Photographer, 1908-74 at the National portrait Gallery

Ida Kar: Bohemian Photographer, 1908-74

IDA KAR: BOHEMIAN PHOTOGRAPHER, 1908-74
From 10 March to 19 June 2011
Porter Gallery

• First museum exhibition for 50 years devoted to Ida Kar
• Includes nearly 100 photographs, some not previously exhibited  
• Highlights Ida Kar’s Archive for the first time

A new exhibition of portraits by the twentieth-century pioneering photographer Ida Kar opens at the National Portrait Gallery tomorrow, Thursday 10 March. Ida Kar: Bohemian Photographer, 1908-74 highlights the crucial role played by this key woman photographer at the heart of the creative avant-garde. With striking portraits of artists such as Henry Moore, Georges Braque, Gino Severini and Bridget Riley, and writers such as Iris Murdoch and Jean-Paul Sartre, this exhibition offers a fascinating insight into the cultural life of post-war Britain and an opportunity to see iconic works, and others not previously exhibited.
On display for the first time is a portrait of artist Yves Klein, shown at his first and highly controversial London exhibition in 1957 in front of one of his famous monochrome works, in the distinctive blue-colour he was later to patent as his own (‘The artist who paints nothing’ was one newspaper headline at the time).

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