Posted on
2024-09-09
Peter Knapp was born on June 5th, 1931, in Bäretswil, Switzerland. He studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich, where he was influenced by the thinking and aesthetics of the Bauhaus movement. He learned about the beauty of function and modernity, which he came to expertly demonstrate in his typography, logo work, catalogue and poster design, and scenography. This led him to work, in the 1950s, as art director for the magazine Nouveau Fémina and the Groupe Galeries Lafayette. He subsequently won a competition to design the pavilions for the Brussels World’s Fair in 1956 alongside the Russian designer Slavik.
In 1959, the legendary magazine creator Hélène Lazareff recruited Knapp to art direct ELLE, which was then an insurgent, iconoclastic publication on the fashion-magazine scene. Knapp served there until 1966 and then again from 1974 until 1977. During the same years, Knapp also became a photographer in his own right, grafting the Bauhaus tenet of applied art onto the practice of fashion photography in his elegant, expertly composed, and subtly challenging photographs.
Opposite – Vogue, Nina Ricci, 1965, Paris (Moulin Rouge), France
Exhibition runs through to October 6th, 2024
Nowhere
40 Wooster St.
New York
NY 10013
www.nowhere-nyc.com