Collection Guide
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Shunk (Harry) and Shunk-Kender photographs, 1957-1990s,
undated
2014.R.20
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Title: Harry Shunk and Shunk-Kender photographs
Date (inclusive): 1957-1990s
Number: 2014.R.20
Creator/Collector:
Shunk, Harry
Creator/Collector:
Shunk-Kender
Creator/Collector:
Kender, Janos
Physical Description:
240.81 Linear Feet
(334 boxes and 1 flatfile folder)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
Business Number: (310) 440-7390
Fax Number: (310) 440-7780
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: Harry Shunk and his partner Janos
Kender worked as photographers recording the art world from the 1950s to the 1970s in the
United States and Europe. Their extensive photography archive contains iconic images from
the post-war era and documents key artists of the time, with candid portraits of artists in
their homes and studios, and documentary photographs of exhibitions, exhibition openings and
installations, performances, and other events.
Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials
described in this inventory through the
catalog record for
this collection. Click here for the
access policy .
Language: Collection material is in
English .
Biographical / Historical Note
Harry Shunk (1924-2006) was born in Reudnitz, Germany and moved to Paris in his teens. At
age 15 he worked as a studio assistant to the photographer Dora Kallmus and from her learned
photographic technique. Shunk worked with Kallmus for two years and then set off on his own
as a photographer. In the 1950s Shunk became affiliated with Janos Kender (1938-2009).
Kender, a Hungarian, had fled to France in order to escape the revolution in his country.
The two photographers developed a romantic and professional partnership that flourished
until the 1970s. Shunk's friendship with artist Dora Tuynman facilitated their introduction
to a circle of artists, gallerists, and galleries for whom they worked as documentarians.
This circle included Yves Klein, Arman, Jean Tinguely, Jean Fautrier, Georges Mathieu, Mimmo
Rotella, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Daniel Spoerri, Jacques Villeglé as well as Galerie Iris
Clert, Galerie J, and Galerie Ileana Sonnabend. Shunk and Kender often stayed with artists
or travelled with them as they installed exhibitions and staged events. They captured
intimate and candid portraits of artists in their homes and studios in addition to
documenting exhibitions, exhibition openings and installations, performances, and other
events. By the 1960s they had also had developed productive relationships with a group of
American artists including Claes Oldenburg, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert
Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, George Segal, Andy Warhol, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude. In
1967 Shunk and Kender moved to Canada and then to New York. During the late 1960s and early
1970s they continued to travel and document artists and their work, and numerous important
exhibitions. The partnership lasted until 1973; Shunk continued to record artists and the
art world independently until the 1980s. Their oeuvre serves as evidence of the close
relationships that Shunk and Kender shared with artists and demonstrates their profound
understanding of the creative process. In the few decades when they were most active they
captured the intense and rapid shifts in the art world, documenting such movements as
Nouveau Realism, Pop art, Minimalism, Post Minimalism, conceptual art, and performance
art.
Partially processed; contact repository for information regarding access.
Contact
Library Reproductions and
Permissions
.
Harry Shunk and Shunk-Kender photographs, 1957-1987, The Getty Research Institute, Los
Angeles, Accession no. 2014.R.20
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2014r20
Laura Schroffel encoded the finding aid, completed processing of the black-and-white
photographs and 35mm negatives, and enhanced the description of the collection in 2014 and
2015. Box numbers for the black-and-white 35mm negatives are temporary and will be changed
after further processing.
Sarah Mackenzie Wade enhanced the description of the collection in 2019 to reflect her
processing of the color negatives, prints, slides, and transparencies.
The following material is unprocessed at this time: black-and-white contact sheets, 4x5 and
6x6 negatives; and various papers. The finding aid will be updated as other materials become
available.
Selected images from Series I. and Series II. have been digitized:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/2014r20
Scope and Content of Collection
The Harry Shunk and Shunk-Kender archive contains photographs, negatives, contact sheets,
slides, transparencies and working materials. Photographs dated after 1973, when Shunk and
Kender dissolved their partnership, are attributed solely to Harry Shunk. There are several
photographs included in this collection that are attributed to various outside photographers
who documented the same events as Shunk-Kender. The current container list for this
collection is preliminary and only describes content for approximately 26,000
black-and-white photographic prints; approximately 2,300 rolls of 35mm black-and-white film;
approximately 60 color photographs; and 75 binders of color slides, negatives, and
transparencies.
Series I contains Shunk and Kender's most extensive body of work documenting artworks and
key artists of their time, including candid portraits of artists in their homes and studios,
as well as photographs of the installation process, exhibitions, exhibition openings,
performances, events, and occasionally editorial work for
Interview
magazine.
Series II comprises Shunk and Kender's personal photography projects such as documentation
of street scenes, images of their home life, and political events. An erotic photography
project is also found here. Shunk and Kender's photocollages make up part of this series.
These artistic photographic works typically combined images of New York skyscrapers paired
with nude females.
The various papers contained in Series III are made up of Shunk and Kender's working
materials such as notes and photographic housing.
Series IV contains parially processed color photographic materials that will be integrated
into Series I and Series II at a later date. Materials in this series may require further
processing before they can be made available.
At this time only the photographic prints; 35mm negatives; and color slides, negatives, and
transparencies are processed and available for research. Box numbers for the negatives are
temporary and will be changed after further processing. When specific formats are not noted
for events in Series I and Series II, the materials for the events described are
black-and-white prints. The following material is unprocessed at this time: contact sheets;
4x5 and 6x6 negatives; various papers. The finding aid will be updated as other materials
become available.
Master image numbers were devised by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation and are assigned to
every photograph. Master numbers that begin with PH, CC, or WA comprise the Darryl Kelly
collection. The Darryl Kelly Collection was purchased by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation in
2012 and is made up of Shunk and Shunk-Kender works previously discarded by the Manhattan
public administrator during the post-mortem cleanup of Harry Shunk's Westbeth studio. Image
numbers between 37504 and 37749 were assigned by the Getty cataloger. Event numbers were
devised by Getty catalogers in order to organize Shunk projects within the Getty's digital
repository.
Some black-and white content has been digitized by the Getty; that digitization is not
comprehensive. The color images currently digitized were done so under the auspices of the
Roy Lichtenstein Foundation. The original formats of these digitized color images are most
likely 35mm color slides or color transparencies, but they have not been verified against
the Getty's physical holdings.
The collection is arranged in four series:
Series I. Artist projects, 1957-1990s;
Series II.
Shunk and Kender photography projects, 1957-1970s;
Series III.
Various papers.
Series IV. Partially processed materials,
1960-1970, undated;
Arman, 1928-2005
Fautrier, Jean,
1898-1964
Christo, 1935-
Rotella, Mimmo, 1918-2006
Saint-Phalle, Niki de, 1930-2002
Rauschenberg, Robert, 1925-2008
Rosenquist, James, 1933-2017
Tinguely, Jean, 1925-1991
Warhol, Andy, 1928-1987
Sonnabend, Ileana
Spoerri, Daniel, 1930-
Johns, Jasper, 1930-
Fontana, Lucio, 1899-1968
Jeanne-Claude, 1935-2009
Mathieu, Georges, 1921-2012
Oldenburg, Claes, 1929-
Klein, Yves,
1928-1962
Lichtenstein, Roy, 1923-1997
Galerie J (Paris, France)
Art exhibitions -- 20th century
Artists -- Portraits
Artists' studios
Happening (Art)
Installations (Art)
Performance art
Photography, Erotic
Street photography
Color negatives
Color photographs
Color slides -- 20th century
Color transparencies -- 20th century
Contact sheets -- 20th century
Gelatin silver prints -- 20th century
Gelatin silver negatives -- 20th century
Photographs, Original
Christo, 1935-
Arman, 1928-2005
Fontana, Lucio, 1899-1968
Fautrier, Jean,
1898-1964
Saint-Phalle, Niki de,
1930-2002
Shunk, Harry
Rosenquist, James, 1933-2017
Rotella, Mimmo, 1918-2006
Tinguely, Jean, 1925-1991
Warhol, Andy, 1928-1987
Shunk-Kender
Spoerri, Daniel, 1930-
Johns, Jasper, 1930-
Klein, Yves,
1928-1962
Kender, Janos
Jeanne-Claude, 1935-2009
Oldenburg, Claes, 1929-
Rauschenberg, Robert, 1925-2008
Lichtenstein, Roy, 1923-1997
Mathieu, Georges, 1921-2012