Irving Penn: Docent Lecture at the JCCSF

Learn about and view an amazing array of Penn’s black and white images ranging from Hell’s Angels to movie stars to fashion icons in this curated docent talk. Penn was born to Russian Jewish immigrant parents in 1917 and the current de Young exhibition covers Penn’s 70-year career featuring 175 photographs. Acknowledged as one of the 20th century’s greatest photographers, Penn was a master of balancing composition with impeccable observation of each subject’s expression, attitude and demeanor from celebrities to working class folks.  

If you like the works in this lecture, join us on Monday, 6/24/24 for a lecture at the JCCSF on the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s RetroBlakesberg: The Music Never Stopped exhibition.  Both exhibitions showcase photographs of well-known individuals that have connections to San Francisco musical icons.   

Richard Cutler joined the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Docent Program in 2018, after a 42-year career as an Emergency Physician with Kaiser Permanente. Beyond his clinical work, Richard served as a Director of the Permanente Medical Group, concentrating on specialty Access and Strategy. In this role, he gave hundreds of lectures to physician groups on innovations in specialty care delivery.  

Richard’s interest in Art and Antiquities started in at an early age with regular trips with his mother to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. As an undergraduate, he focused on Art History, culminating with a semester on Renaissance Studies in Florence, Italy. Richard has been an avid museum goer ever since and enjoys sharing with others the cultural and historical context of artworks to enhance their enjoyment. 

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) are comprised of two iconic sites in San Francisco’s beautiful parks- the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and Legion of Honor Museum in Lincoln Park. As the largest public arts institution in the western United States, the Museums house a world-class collection of 151,000 artworks that span more than 5,000 years.   

The JCCSF and FAMSF have collaborated for over a decade, and we are grateful that FAMSF graciously shares the beauty and history of their collections with the community through inspiring educational docent talks.