Shunk-Kender
Shunk-Kender is the artistic collaboration of Harry Shunk and János Kender, who worked together largely from 1958 to 1973.
Shunk-Kender
- Occupation
- photographer
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Shunk-Kender is the artistic collaboration of Harry Shunk and János Kender, who worked together largely from 1958 to 1973.
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getty · 500355477 · wikidata · Q108809571 · wikipedia · Shunk-Kender
In this article
Artistic duo
Artistic duo
Shunk and Kender were based initially in Paris and later in New York City. They collaborated with many artists including Yves Klein (on "Leap into the Void" (1960)), Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham, Eva Hesse, Alexander Calder, Man Ray, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and around 400 others. They "were hired as a team by artists and dealers to record events from routine gallery openings to major conceptual happenings." They attributed their work to the pair of them rather than individually.
Disbanding
Disbanding
When they disbanded in 1973, Kender gave Shunk control of the joint material, and Shunk continued working with photography for a further 30 years.
Solo exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
• Art on Camera: Photographs by Shunk-Kender, 1960–1971, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2015
Group exhibitions
Group exhibitions
• Performing for the Camera, Tate Modern, London, 2016
Publications
• Shunk-Kender – Art Through the Eye of the Camera (1957–1983). Paris: Xavier Barral, 2019.. • Shunk-Kender – L'art sous l'objectif (1957–1982). Paris: Xavier Barral, 2019..
Collections
Collections
The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation donated the Harry Shunk and Shunk-Kender Photography Collection—more than 200,000 prints, negatives and other photographic material—to a consortium of five art institutions: Centre Pompidou in Paris (10,000 prints), Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles ("183,000 items, including a near-complete set of 19,000 prints, 12,000 contact sheets, 126,000 negatives, and 26,000 color transparencies and slides"), Museum of Modern Art in New York City, National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (around 2,300 images documenting Christo and Jeanne-Claude and their epic installation works), and Tate in the UK (305 works). As of 2013 the Foundation retained roughly 25,000 Shunk-Kender works.
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority file
- Getty Union List of Artist Names 500355477, Shunk-Kender.
General reference · The Getty Research Institute
reference work
- “Shunk-Kender”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q108809571: Shunk-Kender
General reference · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Loos, Ted. Art-Scene Glimpses, Lost Then Found. The New York Times. 18 December 2013. 0362-4331.
- 2.Vartanian, Hrag. Two Photographers Emerge from the Shadows with Over 400 Artist Portraits. Hyperallergic. 20 December 2013.
- 3.Shunk-Kender. Art on Camera. Wall Street International. 18 March 2015.
- 4.Exposed: photography's fabulous fakes. The Guardian. 31 January 2016.
- 5.Performing for the Camera review – pain, passport photos and genital panic. The Guardian. 15 February 2016.
- 6.Leap into the Void. www.metmuseum.org.
- 7.Art on Camera: Photographs by Shunk-Kender, 1960–1971. The Museum of Modern Art.
- 8.Spence, Rachel. Performing for the Camera, Tate Modern, London. Financial Times. 21 February 2016.
- 9.Performing for the camera long pre-dates the selfie. The Independent. 6 February 2016.
- 10.Performing for the Camera review – pain, passport photos and genital panic. The Guardian. 15 February 2016.
- 11.Aesthetica Magazine - Performing for the Camera, Tate Modern. Aesthetica Magazine.
- 12.The art of posing: 'Performing for the Camera' at Tate Modern. Wallpaper*. 18 February 2016.
- 13.Fonds Harry Shunk et Shunk-Kender. Centre Pompidou.
- 14.Harry Shunk and Shunk-Kender Archive (Getty Research Institute). www.getty.edu.
- 15.Shunk-Kender Photography Collection. www.nga.gov.
- 16.Harry Shunk 1924–2006. Tate.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority file
Getty Union List of Artist Names 500355477, Shunk-Kender.The Getty Research Institute
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 August 2026.
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