Mascara Wars
2001
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
chromogenic print
Dimensions
image: 39.9 × 60.9 cm (15 11/16 × 24 in.) sheet: 54.8 × 76 cm (21 9/16 × 29 15/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of The Irving Penn Foundation, in Honor of the 25th Anniversary of Photography at the National Gallery of Art
Accession Number
2015.37.1
Art Historical Context
Irving Penn's *Mascara Wars* (2001) captures the artist's enduring fascination with everyday objects transformed into icons of elegance and drama. A chromogenic print—a vibrant color photograph developed using dye-coupling technology for rich, stable hues—this 39.9 × 60.9 cm image exemplifies Penn's late-career still lifes. Renowned for his six-decade career at *Vogue*, Penn elevated consumer goods like cosmetics into sculptural compositions, often against stark white backgrounds with meticulous lighting that highlights texture and form. Created near the end of Penn's life (he passed in 2009)...
About the Artist
Irving Penn
Irving Penn (1917–2009), born in Plainfield, New Jersey, to Russian Jewish immigrant parents Harry Penn and Sonia Greenberg, grew up in a family that included his younger brother, acclaimed film director Arthur Penn. From 1934 to 1938, he attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art (now University of the Arts), where he studied drawing, painting, graphics, and industrial arts under t...