We all perform. It’s what we do for each other all the time, deliberately or unintentionally. It’s a way of telling about ourselves in the hope of being recognized as what we’d like to be. -RICHARD AVEDON

Richard Avedon
Truman Capote, New York City, October 10, 1955, 1955

Although Richard Avedon first earned his reputation as a fashion photographer, perhaps his greatest achievement was his reinvention of the genre of photographic portraiture. The concept of “performance,” in both life and art, was one of his central concerns. He photographed actors and comedians, pop stars and divas, musicians and dancers, artists in all mediums whose public lives were essentially performances.

Richard Avedon
Bert Lahr, Actor in Beckett's "Waiting for Godot", New York, New York, May 15, 1956, 1956

Many of the most celebrated cultural figures of the last fifty years passed before Avedon’s camera. Though he is known for his definitive portraits of Charlie Chaplin, The Beatles, Marilyn Monroe, and Bob Dylan among others, his interests were not solely in the famous. His finest portraits also included some of the more cerebral and less public figures in the arts, such as Isak Dinesen, Bert Lahr, Stephen Sondheim, François Truffaut, and Marian Anderson. The exhibition will include approximately fifty original prints as well as contact sheets, work prints, album covers, and other ephemera.

Richard Avedon
Bob Dylan, Singer, New York City, February 10, 1965, 1965

Avedon’s portraits were the subject of a major retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2002, and his work appears in every major museum photography collection. The books he produced throughout his career set new standards for photographic publishing. A newly released, 304-page hardcover publication, Richard Avedon: Performance, accompanies the exhibition. His career will be the focus of a major retrospective opening at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in the fall of 2009.

Richard Avedon
Marian Anderson, Contralto, New York, 1955, 1955

Concurrent with the exhibition at Fraenkel Gallery, RICHARD AVEDON: PERFORMANCE will also be on view at Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York City from November 14, 2008 to January 3, 2009.

Richard Avedon
Rudolf Nureyev, Dancer, New York, 1967, 1967

Fraenkel Gallery is located at 49 Geary Street, 4th floor, San Francisco. Hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10:30 am - 5:30 pm, & Saturday 11:00 am - 5:00 pm. For further information and press photographs, please contact Daniel Cheek at 415.981.2661 or dcheek@fraenkelgallery.com.