Shunk-Kender is the artistic collaboration of

Harry Shunk Harry Shunk (born Schunk or Schunke; 1924 – June 26, 2006) was a German photographer, most noted for his cooperation with János Kender from 1957/58 to 1973 under the name Shunk-Kender. He was, along with his partner Kender, the photographer of h ...

and

János Kender János (Jean) Kender (July 6, 1937 – December 5, 2009) was a Hungarian photographer, famous for his cooperation with colleague Harry Shunk under the name Shunk-Kender from 1957 to about 1973, firstly in Paris, and later in New York. Kender was ...

, who worked together largely from 1958 to 1973.

Artistic duo

Shunk and Kender were based initially in Paris and later in New York City. They collaborated with many artists including

Yves Klein Yves Klein (; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein w ...

(on "Leap into the Void" (1960)),

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...

Merce Cunningham Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. He frequently collaborated with artists of other discipl ...

Eva Hesse Eva Hesse (January 11, 1936 – May 29, 1970) was a German-born American sculptor known for her pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass, and plastics. She is one of the artists who ushered in the postminimal art movement in the 196 ...

Alexander Calder Alexander Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and his ...

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, although his t ...

Christo and Jeanne-Claude Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, often large landmarks and ...

, 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

When they disbanded in 1973, Kender gave Shunk control of the joint material, and Shunk continued working with photography for a further 30 years.

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. .

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

*''Art on Camera: Photographs by Shunk-Kender, 1960–1971'',

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York, 2015

Group exhibitions

*''Performing for the Camera'',

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...

, London, 2016

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 The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

in Paris (10,000 prints),

Getty Research Institute The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts".

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"),

in New York City,

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

in Washington, D.C. (around 2,300 images documenting Christo and Jeanne-Claude and their epic installation works), and

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

in the UK (305 works). the Foundation retained roughly 25,000 Shunk-Kender works.

References

{{Reflist Art duos 20th-century British artists