Mona Bismarck American Center for Art & Culture, Paris, 2014

'During his lifetime, Yousuf Karsh (1908-2002) held over 15,000 sittings and produced over 150,000 negatives. Among these were portraits of some of France and the United States’ most exhilarating political, cultural and intellectual figures, including Ernest Hemingway, François Mauriac, Grace Kelly, John F. Kennedy, Christian Dior and Man Ray.

The exhibition at the Mona Bismarck American Center for art & culture will reunite approximately seventy of the photographer’s most striking portraits of French and American dignitaries and luminaries, juxtaposing Frank Lloyd Wright with Le Corbusier, for example, and Charles de Gaulle with Dwight Eisenhower. Original photographs will be presented alongside archival material from the dozens of Life and Paris-Match covers that Karsh captured, marking the transformation of his intimate portraits into public icons.

Karsh’s remarkable artistic career was matched only by the extraordinary lives of those he photographed. Icons of the 20th Century will celebrate his exceptional contribution to shaping personal and historical memory throughout the twentieth century.'

Mona Bismarck American Center for art & culture
34 avenue de New York, 75116 Paris