HARRY SHUNK ARCHIVE (SHUNK-KENDER)

The Harry Shunk Archive is comprised of two collections of photographic material. The Shunk-Kender Photography Collection contains the work of Harry Shunk and János [Jean] Kender as a collaborative team, and represents the most concentrated work of the archive. The Harry Shunk Photography Collection contains the early and late work of Harry Shunk as an individual.

Highlights of the Shunk-Kender images include images as diverse as the photomontage created by Shunk-Kender in 1960 and their working shots of Yves Klein's iconic action in a Paris suburb entitled Le Saut dans le vide [Leap into the Void] to the duo's photographs of landmark exhibitions such as When Attitudes Become Form (1969) and Pier 18 (1971). Monumental installations by artists such as Christo, Niki de Saint Phalle, Claes Oldenburg, Jean Tinguely and others as well as comprehensive coverage of biennales and Worlds' Fairs, art parties, Nouveau réaliste and conceptual art performances in Paris and New York and gallery shows are an integral part of the archive. Early and rarely reproduced photographs featuring Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Alan Kaprow, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol are featured as well. Many other emerging and important artists, critics and collectors from 1973 until the early twenty-first century taken only by Shunk exist as well.

On this page you will find a list of all the inventoried artists. This content is available for both collections, including Shunk-Kender as a collaborative team and Harry Shunk as an individual.

In 2008, the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation bought over 200,000 Shunk-Kender and Shunk photographs and materials from the Estate of Harry Shunk, as administered by the Public Administrator of the County of New York City.

In 2014, after years of digitizing and cataloguing, the Foundation donated the vast bulk of this historical collection to the Getty Research Institute, Centre Pompidou, Tate, Museum of Modern Art and National Gallery of Art, making this invaluable work available to the public. Additional donations by the Foundation to museums will be forthcoming.

For more information about the archive, please visit the Getty Research Institute’s Shunk-Kender web page.

to view low-resolution scans of many of the photographs in the archive
to consult the Finding Aid for the archive
to order photographs and/or permission to use them
or, to ask a question.

Copyright

The J. Paul Getty Trust holds the photographers’ copyrights for both Shunk-Kender photographs and Harry Shunk photographs. However, third parties may claim privacy or publicity rights in these images, or rights to artworks depicted that are not in the public domain. It is the responsibility of the requester to obtain permission from artists or other third parties.

The appropriate photo attribution is indicated in the Finding Aid.

For photographs attributed to both Shunk and Kender, please use this credit line:
Photograph: Shunk-Kender © J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2014.R.20). Gift of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation in Memory of Harry Shunk and Janos Kender.

For photographs attributed to Harry Shunk alone, please use this credit line:
Photograph: Harry Shunk © J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2014.R.20). Gift of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation in Memory of Harry Shunk and Janos Kender.