PETER KNAPP
Dancing In the Street
1960-1970
It resonates like a little slap, a snapping of fingers…Knapp! Depending on one’s generation, he is reminiscent of Dim Dam Dom, the cult TV show of the 1960s, or of Elle magazine, and for others, he is a benchmark in graphic design or is closely associated with the New Realists. More than anything, it was the photographs that made the man. With Peter Knapp, girls take flight, futuristic silhouettes dazzle us, and designer boots jog through the streets of Paris. The time is right. The decades of the 60s and ‘70s are, in terms of fashion and in mood, synonymous with freedom and creativity. The photographer is not just a witness to this incredible era; he is part and parcel of recording this new world in pictures. Whether it was for couture houses (André Courrèges, Emanuel Ungaro, Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin, among others) or for magazines (Elle, Stern, Vogue...), Peter Knapp mastered the art of what was required. He accepted constraints and followed all that Paris offered in terms of innovation, sometimes even of irreverence.
The «Dancing in the Street – Peter Knapp and Fashion, 1960-1970» exhibit offers us the chance to discover, through nearly a hundred images, most of which have never been on display, one of the most imaginative collections that fashion photography produced during that period.
March 9 – June 10, 2018
