An exhibition of photographs from Irving Penn’s long photographic career at the Pace International Gallery in Los Angeles Hall symbolically celebrates our century’s view of the pioneering creators of the twentieth century. And Irving Penn (1917-2009), a photographer associated with Vogue and Condé Nast, left his indelible personal mark on the visual storytelling of an entire era. The exhibition in Los Angeles is dedicated to Irving Penn as an innovator and in many ways an innovator, a creator who demonstrates his visual education in his photographs. His work has more or less updated and arguably changed the way photographs have become vehicles of cultural style and aesthetic criteria.

Penn was probably not an aesthete (nor was his predecessor, the famous Briton Cecil Beaton, also associated with Vogue). But he was obsessed with detail and challenging stereotypes, which he indirectly undermined. Many of his photographs had a subtle and elegant irony that attracted a wide variety of admirers. Pace systematically traces interpretations of his legacy, and exhibitions of Penn’s work are also a source of inspiration for the history of ideas related to the symbolism of photography. Penn had a distinct style and technique which he called “photography”. It was education and friction with painting that almost finally and naturally led him into a constant dialogue with the history of art. Often, before arranging a photo shoot, he spent time alone, first sketching on paper.

It was “photography”, a derogatory term he used to distinguish himself from fashion and style photographers who were primarily interested in publishing in major magazines. Penn had his own way of handling the media world and surviving triumphantly. He spent all the time he wanted to study, because he wanted his photographs to be timeless, that is, classic, and catch the eye flipping through a magazine. He wanted his photographs to live independently of the world of advertising that gave birth to them. For the most part, he succeeded.

Views of the world

The cooperation between the Vienna Historical Museum and the Oskar Reinhardt collection resulted in an exhibition of rare works that tell about the creative awakening of Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553). Cranach arrived in Vienna in 1500, where he created his first works, characterized by a particular intensity of Expressionism, which he gradually replaced with a more formal style.

Inspired by Mies van der Rohe’s principles of transparency and purity, Villa Rotonda in Madrid. A recent project by architect Alberto Campo Báez, this private residence was built in the north of Madrid as a proposal to update the classic canon of mid-twentieth century modernism. The architecture of private houses in the suburbs of big cities writes its own parallel history.

The first major exhibition of works by Henri Matisse in Hungary is presented at the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts. More than 100 works from the Pompidou Center in Paris – curated from Paris and Budapest – trace the entire development of Matisse and his technique over 60 years. Characteristic works from his series of sculptures are also presented. The exhibition will run until 16 October.

In 1920 Antwerp hosted the Olympic Games, the first since the First World War. The europeana.eu website dedicates one of its digital exhibitions to this event, which also had several features. Sports that we associate with the Winter Games, such as hockey, were played in the summer, and this year, artists also competed with work inspired by the Games.

The Gagosian Gallery presents a tribute to Swiss art production from the post-war period to the present day in its exhibition space in Gstaad. This Swiss co-residence of famous artists, from Ferdinand Hodler to Urs Fischer (his work pictured), aims to highlight the outstanding performance of Swiss artists and link their work to different currents such as art brut.