Peter Knapp
Compte à rebours
For its inaugural exhibition, Oana Ivan Gallery is delighted to present an exceptional selection of photographs by the visionary artist Peter Knapp.
From January 17 to April 17, 2025, Oana Ivan Gallery opens its doors with an inaugural exhibition dedicated to Peter Knapp, one of the greatest visionaries of contemporary imagery. Featuring around thirty iconic and previously unseen works by Peter Knapp, Compte à rebours, 2024–1960 offers a journey through time, tracing six decades of creativity, boldness, and innovation.
A master of the aesthetic revolution
Peter Knapp does not simply take photographs; he stages, reinvents, and transcends the boundaries between art and fashion. As Artistic Director of Elle magazine and a collaborator with some of the greatest designers – Yves Saint Laurent, André Courrèges, Thierry Mugler, and Issey Miyake – he transformed fashion photography into a visual manifesto, where each image becomes an experience. Rejecting the rigid codes of haute couture, he celebrates movement, spontaneity, and the unexpected, offering the women he photographs a new sense of freedom.
Women as the driving force of a visual imagination
Through Peter Knapp’s lens, women become symbols of a modernity in full bloom. His gaze captures an energy, a vital breath, where femininity and freedom blend in an unconstrained visual choreography. With his striking black-and-white imagery and bold framing, he moves away from static poses to explore the glow of a yawn, the imbalance of a gesture, or the intensity of a glance. Each photograph invites the viewer to rediscover the body, clothing, and their relationship with the surrounding space as fields of experimentation.
A new creative era: Peter Knapp’s collages
For his recent creations from 2024, four of which are featured in the exhibition, Peter Knapp explores a new collage technique. Drawing from his archives, he abandons traditional photographic paper in favor of canvas, where fashion photographs are interwoven with images of places that have inspired him, such as Salzburg, Ravenna, and Chartres. Bodies and landscapes are enriched with materials—fabric, marble, stone, or granite— that become essential elements of his compositions. Form and background merge, foreground and background blur, creating profoundly unique works.
Peter Knapp immerses us in a fictional universe where imagination reigns supreme. He invites us to transcend time alongside him, bridging the gap between the 1960s and today.
The art of capturing the moment
Peter Knapp captures more than a fleeting instant; he reveals the essence of movement and attitude. Every detail—a light grazing a silhouette, a gesture frozen in mid-air, or a shadow in motion—contributes to a composition that transcends fashion to become a work of art. This attention to visual rhythm, inspired by his passion for cinema and graphic arts, lends his images an intensity that surpasses their original function. The exhibition showcases this unique alchemy: photographs where the energy of the moment meets meticulous construction to craft an aesthetic that is timeless and radically modern.
A tribute to freedom and audacity
Through Compte à rebours, 2024–1960, the Oana Ivan Gallery celebrates an artist whose legacy continues to resonate in contemporary creation. The walls of 93 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré become the stage for a body of work that, from the cobblestone streets of Paris to Mediterranean shores, tells the story of women’s emancipation and the liberation of the body.
Exhibition view of Peter Knapp’s solo exhibition “Compte à rebours, 2024-1960”, Oana Ivan Gallery, Paris
Jan. 17 - Apr. 17, 2025
Exhibition view of Peter Knapp’s solo exhibition “Compte à rebours, 2024-1960”, Oana Ivan Gallery, Paris
Jan. 17 - Apr. 17, 2025
Peter Knapp, Azzedine Alaïa et Marcie Hunt, pour Stern, 1981, Silver print mounted on aluminium,
154 x 107 cm | 60 5/8 x 42 1/8 in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Azzedine Alaïa et Marcy Hunt pour Stern, 1981, Cibachrome print
43 x 43 cm | 16 7/8 x 16 7/8 in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Eddie en Emanuel Ungaro, Paris, pour le magazine Femme, Paris, 1985, Cibachrome print
100 x 70 cm | 39 3/8 x 27 1/2 in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Dorothy Walsh, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, “Le noir et blanc cet été”, prêt-à-porter, ELLE n°749, 29 avril 1960, 1960, Silver print
88 x 63 cm | 34 5/8 x 24 3/4 in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Dorothy Walsh et Germain Blondel sur l’eau avec la création de Slavik, Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, 1960, Silver print
88 x 63 cm | 34 5/8 x 24 3/4 in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Grace Jones, brassière sculpture Sonja Knapp et Oskar Gustin, pour Emanuel Ungaro, Paris, 1968, Silver print
80 x 80 cm | 31 1/2 x 31 1/2 in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Gloria, pour le magazine Stern, Taroudant, 1978, Black and white print (2024)
62 x 80 x cm | 24 3/8 x 31 1/2 x in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Loulou de la Falaise, pour sa propre création, pour le magazine ELLE, 1967, Silver print
64 x 64 cm | 25 1/4 x 25 1/4 in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Loulou de la Falaise, pour sa propre création, pour le magazine ELLE, 1967, Colour print
55 x 59 X cm | 21 5/8 x 23 1/4 x in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Emanuel Ungaro, broderie Jakob Schlaepfer, pour le magazine Stern, Paris, 1967, Silver print
55 x 59 cm | 21 5/8 x 23 1/4 in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Sur le toit du Moulin Rouge,pour Emanuel Ungaro, 1980, Silver print
45 x 61 cm | 17 3/7 x 24 in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Mickey, Tennis Look, extrait de l’émission “Dim Dam Dom”, Paris, 1969, Silver print on fine art baryta paper
54 x 47 x cm l 21 1/4 x 18 1/2 x in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Torse nu Ann Schaufuss, 1970, Silver print
51 x 39 x cm | 20 1/8 x 15 3/8 x in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Femme aux bracelets, 1980, Silver print, Edition 2 of 13
45 x 45 x cm | 17 3/4 x 17 3/4 x in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Rita Scherrer, Dior haute couture, Klosters, 1969, Black and white silver print
55 x 46 x cm | 21 5/8 x 18 1/8 x in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Rita Scherrer, bijoux Paco Rabanne, 1969, Black and white solarised print,
54 x 43,5 cm | 21 1/4 x 17 1/8 in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Rita Scherrer, bijoux Paco Rabanne, 1969, Black and white solarized print
54 x 43,5 x cm | 21 1/4 x 17 1/8 x in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Anny Duperey , pour la sortie du film Stavisky d’Alain Resnais, Fontainebleau, 1974, Colour print
55 x 46 x cm | 20 1/2 x 18 1/8 x in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Série sur le cirque – couleur rouge, pour Yves Saint Laurent, studio du Moulin Rouge, 1982 Colour print
60 x 60 x cm | 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 x in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Série sur le cirque – couleur bleu, pour Yves Saint Laurent, studio du Moulin Rouge, Colour print
60 x 60 cm | 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Série sur le cirque – couleur jaune, pour Yves Saint Laurent, studio du Moulin Rouge, 1982, Colour print
60 x 60 cm | 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Plage de Dauville, pour Yves Saint Laurent, 1982, Colour print
60 x 60 cm | 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Kenzo, late 1970s, Black and white print (2024)
150 x 105 x cm | 59 x 41 3/8 x in (framed)
Peter Knapp, Lac bleu, 2024, Colour inkjet on canvas
150 x 150 cm | 59 x 59 in
Peter Knapp, L’herbe, 2024, Colour inkjet on canvas
150 x 150 x cm | 59 x 59 x in
Peter Knapp, Marbre et fleur, 2024, Colour inkjet on canvas
150 x 150 x cm | 59 x 59 x in
Peter Knapp, La chaise en fleur, 2024, Colour inkjet on canvas
150 x 150 x cm | 59 x 59 x in