Arnold Newman’s Incredible Artist Portraits (25 photos)

Pablo Picasso, Spanish Painter and Sculptor, 1954

“We do not take pictures with our cameras, but with our hearts and minds,” so said Arnold Newman, one of the world’s best-known and most admired photographers to have ever lived. Known for his “environmental portraits” of artists and politicians, he captured the essence of his subjects by showing them in their natural surroundings. As he said, “I didn’t just want to make a photograph with some things in the background. The surroundings had to add to the composition and the understanding of the person. No matter who the subject was, it had to be an interesting photograph. Just to simply do a portrait of a famous person doesn’t mean a thing.” Newman was a master at composition and was meticulous about his work. He even used a large-format camera and tripod to ensure that every detail of a scene was recorded. His signature image, the one most will remember him by, is the last one in this post. It’s a beautiful, black and white portrait of Russian Composer Igor Stravinsky seated at a grand piano. Look closely and you’ll notice that the piano was strategically silhouetted against a blank wall, creating an illusion that the lid is an abstract musical note.

Max Ernst, German Painter and Sculptor, 1942

Marc Chagall, Russian/French Painter, 1942

Isamu Noguchi, Japanese American Artist and Landscape Architect, 1947

Man Ray, American Surrealist Painter, 1948

Josef Albers, German-American Painter, 1948

Jackson Pollock, American Painter, 1949

Jean Arp, German-French Painter and Sculptor, 1949

Salvador Dali, Spanish Surrealist Painter, 1951

Jean Dubuffet, French Painter and Sculptor, 1956

Milton Avery, American Modern Painter, 1961

Marcel Duchamp, French Surrealist Painter, 1966

Frank Stella, American Painter, 1967

Claes Oldenburg, Swedish Sculptor, 1967

Leonard Bernstein, American Conductor, 1968

Louise Nevelson, American Sculptor, 1972

Roy Lichtenstein, American Pop Artist, 1976

Joan Mir, Catalan/Spanish Painter and Sculptor, 1979

Arthur Miller, American Playwright, 1947

Ayn Rand, Russian-American Novelist, 1964

Ansel Adams, American Photographer, 1975

Truman Capote, American Novelist, 1977

I.M. Pei, Chinese Architect, 1967

Frank Lloyd Wright, America Architect, 1947

Igor Stravinsky, Russian Composer, Pianist and Conductor, 1946 Arnold Newman

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