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Karsh Yousuf Karsh gained world-wide recognition with his 1941 image of a staunchly defiant Winston Churchill, now universally recognised as one of the icons of twentieth century portraiture. It is perhaps ironic that this great symbol of British resistance was made by an Armenian refugee. Karsh arrived in Canada aged sixteen, speaking little French and no English, and joined his uncle's photography studio as an assistant. By 1933 he had opened his own portrait studio in Ottawa and over the next five decades would receive some 17,000 sitters. It soon became a privilege and even a prerequisite for the great and good to have their photograph taken by Karsh. His collection of the 'Famous 500' includes Picasso, Hemingway, J.F.Kennedy, Bardot, Bogart, Man Ray, Le Corbusier and countless others. This exhibition also includes rarely seen early work from the thirties, including the elegantly stylised Ballet Lesson and the surreal Elixir, depicting nudes seen through the distortion of a glass bottle, revealing yet another aspect of his oeuvre. Karsh continued to work energetically into his eighties before finally closing his studio in 1992 and placing his extensive collection with the National Archives of Canada. He died on 13 July 2002, aged 93. His works are included in almost every important photography collection and his most recent major retrospective was held in Berlin in 2001 with an accompanying monograph published by Stoddart. Tom Blau Gallery is the primary representative of Karsh in Europe and maintains an extensive inventory. All prints are available for purchase from £2,150+vat. For more information, or to order prints, |
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