Ida Kar: Bohemian Photographer

A new exhibition of portraits by the 20th century pioneering photographer Ida Kar opens at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery on Saturday 26 January.

Ida Kar, Bohemian Photographer – Portraits of Artists from Paris, London and St Ives, highlights the crucial role played by this key female photographer at the heart of the creative avant-garde.

The exhibition has been produced in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery, London and is derived from their 2011 show – the first museum exhibition for 50 years devoted to Ida Kar, which included nearly 100 photographs, some not previously exhibited.

Plymouth’s version includes around 40 works and charts Kar’s career from some of her earliest portraits taken in Paris through to the height of her success when she became the first photographer to be honoured with a major retrospective in London, at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1960.

The exhibition also features some of her later portraits of the leading members of the St Ives School of Artists including Patrick Heron, Peter Lanyon, Barbara Hepworth and Terry Frost. A number of these artists are also represented in the Museum’s permanent art collection and a selection of work by them will be included in the show.

Born in Russia to Armenian parents in 1908, Ida Kar initially studied in Paris. She had a studio in Cairo, Egypt in the late 1930s before moving to London in 1945. Here, she was introduced to the British art world through the family of famous sculptor, Jacob Epstein and her second husband, Victor Musgrave, a poet, art dealer and curator.

“Despite receiving critical acclaim from her contemporaries, Ida Kar remains surprisingly little known today, yet she was instrumental in encouraging the acceptance of photography as fine art,” said exhibitions programme co-ordinator, Kate Johnson. “Her portraits offer a fascinating insight into post-war cultural life and her subjects include some of the most celebrated figures from the literary and art worlds of 1950s and 1960s Europe and Russia.”

Kar’s first solo exhibition in London was called ‘Forty Artists from London and Paris’ and was displayed at Musgrave’s Gallery One in 1954. Her solo show at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1960 brought her much critical if not financial success. She also worked for the Tatler and travelled widely to places such as Germany, Armenia and Cuba. She died in London in 1974.

Sandy Nairne, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, said: “Ida Kar was a great portrait photographer and a fascinating, cosmopolitan figure who documented the post-war cultural scene. Following on from our own exhibition last year, I am delighted that we have been able to work with Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery to continue to bring her work to a wider audience.”

Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery is offering a lunchtime talk by Clare Freestone, Associate Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery on Tuesday 29 January; Art Bites looking at Kar’s portraits from Paris and London (Wednesday 30 January) and St Ives (Wednesday 27 February); a family-friendly pinhole camera workshop (limited places, booking essential) on Wednesday 20 February and a family-friendly collage workshop on Thursday 21 February, as well as self-directed portrait activities during half term.

Ida Kar, Bohemian Photographer – Portraits of Artists from Paris, London and St Ives will be on display at the Museum and Art Gallery from Saturday 26 January until Saturday 13 April. Exhibition opening hours are 10am to 5.30pm Tuesday to Friday and 10am to 5pm on Saturdays. The exhibition is closed on Sundays, Mondays and also on Good Friday (29 March). Admission is free and there is no need to book.

For more information call 01752 304774.