The Marta Ortega Pérez Foundation (MOP) presents in A Coruña the largest retrospective of one of the most gifted alchemists of photography ever presented in Spain.
The MOP Foundation, created by Marta Ortega Pérez, president of the Inditex group, which owns the Zara brand among others, has been contributing for three years to revitalizing A Coruña, located on the northwest coast of Spain. The Galician city is known for its rich cultural and artistic heritage, as well as for its Tower of Hercules, the oldest lighthouse in the world, which has been in operation for over two thousand years.
This new space, designed by architect Elsa Urquijo, was originally a former silo used as an industrial warehouse. Today, it highlights the relationship between the city and the sea on the Battery Quay (Muelle de la Batería). Following three successive exhibitions on Peter Lindbergh (1944-2019), Steven Meisel (1954-) and Helmut Newton (1920-2004), it is now Irving Penn's (1917-2009) turn to take over this space, dedicated to photography, fashion and A Coruña.
The "Centennial" retrospective was first created in 2017 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) in New York, in collaboration with the Irving Penn Foundation, to mark the centenary of the birth of this leading figure in photography. It then exhibited 300 legendary images, memorable engravings, and meticulous prints.
A REMARKABLE SIGNATURE
The MOP Foundation is thus celebrating his innovative and avant-garde career, from his beginnings in the 1930s to the first decade of the 21st century. This collection, never before exhibited in Spain, displays more than 160 photographs, including previously unseen pieces and a series of essays that offer an overview of his main themes and works.
It features the serene beauty of fashion models, notably that of his wife Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, exquisite nudes, the emotion of aging flowers, and still lifes. And, of course, his portraits of celebrities, such as Pablo Picasso, Marlene Dietrich, Yves Saint Laurent, and Alfred Hitchcock, as well as his series of photographs of ordinary people, taken around the world in his portable studio.
And as is customary, the MOP Foundation is making way for a new spatial composition both inside and out. At the heart of the silo, it is also inaugurating its bookstore, specializing in photography, fashion, design and other artistic disciplines.
“IRVING PENN: CENTENNIAL”
MOP FOUNDATION
MUELLE DE LA BATERÍA, IN CORUÑA (SPAIN)
UNTIL MAY 1, 2025
THEMOPFOUNDATION.ORG/EN
