01.12.2022  •  Art NEWS

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‘Peter Knapp – Mon temps’ – optimism and joie de vivre during an era of social transition – an exhibition at Fo­to­stif­tung Schweiz with a book publication by Scheidegger & Spiess

What drives me is the act of translating ideas into images. I want to visualize my thoughts, to express my fantasies and stories pictorially. Je ne prends pas de photos, je les fais.” says Peter Knapp, an influential figure in the international fashion world during the 1960s and ‘70s. Fotostiftung Schweiz has dedicated an exhibition to him.

Transitioning from typographer and graphic designer to an artist, art director, photographer and director: Peter Knapp’s ideas for layout and typography as well as his dynamic photographs turned the magazine Elle into a leading medium of the fashion industry in the 1960s.

After studying at the Zurich School of Applied Arts, he enjoyed great success as an art director at Paris-based magazine Elle. In a time of social upheaval, which was reflected to no small extent in fashion, he found the right images for the liberation of the body and mind. Elle, a leading medium of emancipation under Editor-in-Chief Hélène Lazareff, contributed significantly to a buoyant democratization of women’s clothing: with prêt-à-porter replacing haute couture, and the minijupe replacing the corset, functionality taking the place of stiff elegance, with self-confident women on the streets and not merely models in the studio. Peter Knapp’s layouts and photographs conveyed this new mindset towards the body and life, which many women in the 1960s could identify with.

He collaborated with the leading Paris fashion designers and used photography to express a new awareness of life. Later, magazines such as Vogue, Marie Claire or Stern also provided an ideal platform: In parallel to his artistic oeuvre, he also thoroughly explored the scope of applied photography. In 2021, Peter Knapp was lauded with the Swiss Grand Prix Design award.

Based upon a generous donation from Peter Knapp – around 600 photographs from the period 1965 to 1980 – Fotostiftung Schweiz is exhibiting the work of this extraordinary designer: ‘Peter Knapp – Mon Temps’ presents his fashion photographs, but also revives the mood that marked an era and the changes in society at that time. Art historian Laura Ragonese pays tribute to his oeuvre sparkling with joie de vivre in the context of the visual culture of the time.

Peter Knapp, born in 1931, first trained as a graphic artist at what was once the Zurich School of Applied Arts. Following his subsequent studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he worked internationally as an artist, designer, art director and fashion photographer.

To accompany the exhibition, there is a book publication entitled Peter Knapp – Mon temps. Modefotografie 1965–1980 by publishing house Scheidegger & Spiess, edited by Peter Pfrunder, Director of Fotostiftung Schweiz, as well as an essay by Laura Ragonese

1st edition, 2022, softcover
192 pages, 209 color and 106 b/w ills.
24 x 34 cm, ISBN 978-3-03942-100-8

Fotostiftung Winterthur, Peter Knapp: Mon Temps, 29 Oct., 2022 – 12 Feb., 2023

GoSee fotostiftung.ch

 
Peter Knapp – Mon temps published by SCHEIDEGGER & SPIESS

Peter Knapp – Mon temps published by SCHEIDEGGER & SPIESS

 
Peter Knapp – Mon temps published by SCHEIDEGGER & SPIESS

Peter Knapp – Mon temps published by SCHEIDEGGER & SPIESS

 
Peter Knapp – Mon temps published by SCHEIDEGGER & SPIESS

Peter Knapp – Mon temps published by SCHEIDEGGER & SPIESS

 
Peter Knapp – Mon temps published by SCHEIDEGGER & SPIESS

Peter Knapp – Mon temps published by SCHEIDEGGER & SPIESS

 
Peter Knapp – Mon temps published by SCHEIDEGGER & SPIESS

Peter Knapp – Mon temps published by SCHEIDEGGER & SPIESS

 
Peter Knapp – Mon temps published by SCHEIDEGGER & SPIESS

Peter Knapp – Mon temps published by SCHEIDEGGER & SPIESS

 
Peter Knapp – Mon temps published by SCHEIDEGGER & SPIESS

Peter Knapp – Mon temps published by SCHEIDEGGER & SPIESS

 
Peter Knapp – Mon temps published by SCHEIDEGGER & SPIESS

Peter Knapp – Mon temps published by SCHEIDEGGER & SPIESS

 
Peter Knapp – Mon temps published by SCHEIDEGGER & SPIESS

Peter Knapp – Mon temps published by SCHEIDEGGER & SPIESS

 
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