William Klein: YES

This exhibition is now extended through Thursday, September 15 in honor of the life and work of William Klein (1926–2022).

Reserve timed-tickets for William Klein: YES; Photographs, Paintings, Films, 1948–2013.

Street photographer. Fashion photographer. Painter. Graphic designer. Abstract photographer. Writer. Filmmaker. Book maker. Few have transformed as many fields of art and culture as William Klein. From his wildly inventive photographic studies of New York, Rome, Moscow, and Tokyo to bold and witty fashion photographs; from cameraless abstract photography to iconic celebrity portraits; from documentary films about Muhammad Ali, Little Richard, and the Pan-African Festival of Algiers to fiction films about the beauty industry, imperialism, and consumer culture. Klein's ability to transcend through artistic form and subject within his abstract photography, paintings, films, and publications helped establish his prolific multidisciplinary artist stature. Through it all runs his distinct graphic energy and deep affection for humanity’s struggles through the chaos of modern life.

Born in Manhattan in 1928, Klein visited the city’s art museums as a teenager and longed to get to Europe. By 1948 he was in Paris where he studied at the Sorbonne, worked briefly under artist Fernand Léger, and where he has lived ever since. For decades he juggled commercial assignments around the world with personal projects in photography, film, painting, and publishing. His output was prodigious. There were few exhibitions until the late 1980s, when he began to look back at his achievements. Gaining the admiration of younger generations, he returned to the fashion world and continued to make groundbreaking films and photobooks.

About the Curator

David Campany is a curator, writer, Curator-at-Large at the International Center of Photography, New York. His books include On Photographs (2020), A Handful of Dust (2015), Art and Photography (2003), Jeff Wall: Picture for Women (2011), Walker Evans: The Magazine Work (2014), and Photography and Cinema (2008).

Image: William Klein, Candy Store, Amsterdam Avenue, New York, 1955. © William Klein. Courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery

Installation images © Scott Rudd Events for ICP

Two ladies walking through an exhibition hallway

Two ladies looking at an exhibition piece

Nakeya Brown, Don't You Know Love When You See It, 20017. © Nakeya Brown, Courtesy the artist and Higher Pictures Generation

Robert Frank, Tattoo Parlor, 8th Avenue, New York City, 1958. International Center of Photography, Gift of Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz in honor of Philip S. Block, 2007. © Andrea Frank Foundation

Louise Lawler, Untitled (Gold Jackie), 1993. International Center of Photogtaphy: Gift of Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz in honor of Willis E. Hartshorn's 25th Anniversary at ICP, 2007. Courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers

Special Thanks

William Klein: YES; Photographs, Paintings, Films, 1948–2013 has been made possible, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts and public funds from New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Significant support is provided by Etant donnés Contemporary Art, a program from Villa Albertine and FACE Foundation, in partnership with the French Embassy in the United States, with support from the French Ministry of Culture, Institut français, Ford Foundation, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, CHANEL, and ADAGP. Additional support is provided by ICP's Exhibitions Committee, Louis Berrick, Andrew Cowan, Howard Greenberg Gallery and Alice Sachs Zimet.