'IDA KAR: BOHEMIAN PHOTOGRAPHER, 1908-74' AT NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON

An exhibition at London’s National Portrait Gallery rediscovers avant-garde photographer Ida Kar.

Text by Anna Battista

“Almost anything can be an art – the making of shoes, the planting of a garden, the designing of furniture, just so long as the person who does it is himself an artist,” once stated avant-garde photographer Ida Kar.

Born in 1908 in Russia from Armenian parents, Ida Karamanian grew up in Russia, Armenia and Iran, then moved with her family to Alexandria, in Egypt. In 1928 her parents sent her to study medicine in Paris. In the French capital she met a few Surrealist artists and became interested in photography. Her experiences with the Surrealists inspired her and her husband Edmond Belali (from whom she divorced in 1944 to marry poet and artist was Victor Musgrave) to open in Cairo an experimental photography studio named Idabel.

In 1945 Kar moved to London with Musgrave and, in the mid-‘50s, she became well known for her photographs and unconventional portraits (she first started in London as a theatrical photographer, taking casting shots of young actors).

Kar was also a revolutionary and could often be spotted in the Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, talking about different issues, among them prostitution. Refusing to compromise, she never worked for the fashion and advertising industries, but produced iconic portraits and reportages as well.

An exhibition at London’s National Portrait Gallery is currently rediscovering the avant-garde photographer (the National Portrait Gallery actually acquired the Ida Kar Archive in 1999, so they do have a special connection with this artist).

Entitled “Ida Kar: Bohemian Photographer, 1908-74”, this event is the first exhibition celebrating in London the iconic artist since 1960 when the Whitechapel Art Gallery dedicated her a photographic show.

The event is divided in different sections, from Kar’s early years to the first images of London and Paris-based artists in their studios, and pictures from Tatler’s photo essay commissions like the one featuring artists working in St Ives.

The event also features images from her travels to Armenia, Russia, East Germany and Cuba, and closes with more portraits of artists from the London scene.

“Bohemian Photographer” includes some beautiful images (some of them were never displayed before): it’s particularly inspiring to look at artists such as Georges Braque or Barbara Hepworth in the environments in which they lived and worked or at rare images of member of the Nouveau Réalisme movement Yves Klein, political activist and leading exponent of the Auto-Destructive Art and Art Strike concepts Gustav Metzger and Op Art painter Bridget Louise Riley.

There are a series of talks and events connected with this event: next week (Saturday 9th April) a guided walk will take visitors around Kar’s artistic London with stops at 1 Litchfield Street where Kar and Musgrave moved, at the sites of Gallery One and at her favourite pub.

“Ida Kar: Bohemian Photographer, 1908-74” is at the National Portrait Gallery (http://www.npg.org.uk), London, until 19^th June.