Exhibition: ‘Hildegard Heise: Photographer’ at Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

Exhibition dates: 17th September 2021 – 20th March 2022

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Karussellpferde, Halle a. d. Saale' (Carousel Horses, Halle a. d. Saale) 1929

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Karussellpferde, Halle a. d. Saale (Carousel Horses, Halle a. d. Saale)
1929
Gelatin silver paper
29 x 38.7cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Nachlass Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

 

Here is another woman photographer with an strong, passionate, objective but sensitive eye who seems to have slipped through the cracks of time, history and recognition. Would you believe it, this is the first comprehensive survey of the work of photographer Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979).

At first New Objectivity, New Vision to the fore… multiples, rows and grids. Carousel horses shot from below, town hall towers as a medieval encampment, and a mass of herring barrels so perfect in their unity higher than the surrounding buildings. An then my favourite, the mass and floating weight of the leaves of the Victoria Regia… the rigour of the composition, its cadences, and the tonality and feeling of the image are just superb. I could go on: the cactus, the crystal, the china – so pure and clean. Followed by glorious almost breathless landscape photographs – Wintry trees, Hamburg (1955, below) and Blossoming apple trees (1961, below). Where has this woman been?

The star of the show has to be her portrait photography. THIS is how you take a portrait, unlike those modestly proficient evocations we saw from Man Ray in the last posting. In these portraits Heise shows her strength and understanding of subject matter, she grasps the essence of the person she is photographing… the whimsy of Alfred Mahlau with film strips (1928-1933, below); the sensitivity of the hands of Carpet weaver Alen Müller-Hellwig at work (1930, below); the windswept bravura of Siegfried Leber, cow hand in Neuendorf on Hiddensee (1934-1938, below); and the composure of the mother in Mother and child on the inter-island steamer (1938, below) with the shadow of the hat covering her face, and the placement of the hands of both mother and child. You could almost pick these people out of the photo and shake them, ask them about their lives, empathise with them. They have true presence. Call me an old romantic, but I could rave on and on about this photographer’s work.

And to top it all off, we have a self-knowing, all-knowing self-portrait where Hildegard (which is a female name derived from the Old High German hild (‘war’ or ‘battle’) and gard (‘enclosure’ or ‘yard’), and means ‘battle enclosure’) appears as if a Sander archetype, staring directly at the camera like a Wagnerian god/ess, both masculine and feminine at the same time. A true enunciation of Gesamtkunstwerk, where art, design, creative process and life combine to create a single cohesive whole.

I take a lovely enjoyment, finally, in her success (Freudenfreude).

Dr Marcus Bunyan


Many thankx to the Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

 

 

It was in the 1920s, a decade when new career prospects were opening up for women, that Hildegard Heise discovered her passion for photography.

Photography during this period reflected the upheavals and transformation of society in the wake of the First World War. Heise found innovative ways to picture these developments, often choosing unusual perspectives. In line with the “new” genre of object photography, which showcased the world of things, she emphasised the structure, surfaces and form of her subjects. Heise for example shot the “bathing machines” in the French beach town of Carolles from a plunging angle to highlight their graphic structures, and focused in on the shiny surfaces of technical vessels produced by a Berlin porcelain manufactory.

Heise found portrait models all around her, photographing mainly children and artists. In 1937 she took a long trip through the Caribbean, portraying people in their communities, their home settings and landscapes. A precise observer, she succeeded in painting a multifaceted picture of a foreign, still little-travelled region. Even at an advanced age, Heise was still capturing landscapes with her camera; her last pictures show the view out her window of passing cloud formations.

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Lübeck, Rathaustürme' (Lübeck, town hall towers) 1932

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Lübeck, Rathaustürme (Lübeck, town hall towers)
1932
Gelatin silver paper
17.2 x 23.3cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Estate Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Emden, Heringstonnen auf dem Gelände einer Heringsfischerei AG im Hafen' (Emden, herring barrels on the premises of a herring fishing company in the port) c. 1934

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Emden, Heringstonnen auf dem Gelände einer Heringsfischerei AG im Hafen (Emden, herring barrels on the premises of a herring fishing company in the port)
c. 1934
Gelatin silver paper
17.3 x 23.3cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Estate Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Blätter der Victoria Regia im Botanischen Garten in Berlin' (Leaves of the Victoria Regia in the Botanical Garden in Berlin) 1934-1945

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Blätter der Victoria Regia im Botanischen Garten in Berlin (Leaves of the Victoria Regia in the Botanical Garden in Berlin)
1934-1945
Gelatin silver paper
16.7 x 22.7cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Estate Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Deichlandschaft bei Emden' (Dike landscape near Emden) Before 1937

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Deichlandschaft bei Emden (Dike landscape near Emden)
Before 1937
Gelatin silver paper
17 x 23cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Nachlass Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Haus mit Garten, Christiansted, Insel St. Croix' (House with garden, Christiansted, Island of St Croix) 1937-1938

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Haus mit Garten, Christiansted, Insel St. Croix (House with garden, Christiansted, Island of St Croix)
1937-1938
Gelatin silver paper
18.3 x 16.8cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Nachlass Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Eisschollen am Elbstrand, Hamburg' (Ice floes on the Elbe beach, Hamburg) 1956

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Eisschollen am Elbstrand, Hamburg (Ice floes on the Elbe beach, Hamburg)
1956
Gelatin silver paper
17.1 x 23cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Nachlass Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'A Young Girl Cuts Her Nails' 1937-1938

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
A Young Girl Cuts Her Nails
1937-1938
from the series A Journey through the West Indies
Gelatin silver paper
17.2 x 16.2cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Estate Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Bergkette, Nußdorf am Inn' (Mountain range, Nußdorf am Inn) 1961

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Bergkette, Nußdorf am Inn (Mountain range, Nußdorf am Inn)
1961
Gelatin silver paper
23 x 17cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Nachlass Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Adolescents on the shore, Central Park, New York' 1970

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Adolescents on the shore, Central Park, New York
1970
C-Print
7.8 x 7.8cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Estate Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Städter auf der Parkbank schlafend, Central Park, New York' (Townsfolk asleep on park bench, Central Park, New York) 1970

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Städter auf der Parkbank schlafend, Central Park, New York (Townsfolk asleep on park bench, Central Park, New York)
1970
C-Print
11.8 x 12cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Estate Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

 

The Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G) is proud to present the first comprehensive survey of the work of photographer Hildegard Heise (1897-1979). The photographs she produced between 1928 and the early 1970s are nothing less than a revelation. In 1930, Heise exhibited alongside avant-garde photographers such as Max Burchartz, Andreas Feininger, Hans Finsler, Hein Gorny and Anneliese Kretschmer at the “Internationale Ausstellung – Das Lichtbild” in Munich. But this buoyant period of bright prospects was followed after 1945 by a systematic side-lining of women artists. Heise continued to privately pursue photography, but her work fell into oblivion and was little researched. With around 160 images on view, the exhibition now pays delayed tribute to this important photographer. As an exponent of the New Objectivity, Heise often focused in closely on details and emphasised the structure, surfaces and form of her subjects. Her images span the areas of object photography, portrai­ture, in particular portraits of children, city scenes, travel photography and landscapes. Heise lived in Lübeck until 1933 and in Hamburg from 1945 to 1959, where she helped shape the city’s cultural life together with her husband, Carl Georg Heise, director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle from 1945. The couple counted among their close friends the painter Anita Rée, the graphic artist and painter Alfred Mahlau, and the photographer Albert Renger-Patzsch. Heise did a number of portraits while in Hamburg, for example of Oskar Kokoschka, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and the weaver Alen Müller-Hellwig. Hildegard Heise’s estate, comprising around 3000 photographs and 2500 negatives, is housed at MK&G.

The exhibition is organised along Heise’s major areas of focus. In her OBJECT PHOTOGRAPHY she highlighted graphic structures and the formal qualities of the objects depicted. In 1930, for example, she photographed the “bathing machines” in the French town of Carolles from an unusual camera angle and showed the turrets lined up atop Lübeck’s town hall. She devoted the same attention to the worn surfaces of Much-Loved Dolls (1928) as she did to the immaculate exteriors of technical vessels produced by a Berlin porcelain manufactory [see below].

Heise found models for her PORTRAITS all around her, for example among her friends or artists such as Oskar Kokoschka, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Alfred Mahlau. These are often half-length portraits concentrating on the sitter’s face, manifesting the great preoccupation during this period with physiognomy. Children’s portraiture – mainly the realm of women photo­graphers at the time – became a specialty that Heise continued to pursue over the years. She did such portraits on commission but also in her circle of friends, where she proved to be an attentive observer, seemingly capturing candid moments.

From 1934 to 1936 Heise created an extensive CITY PORTRAIT of Emden that interweaves photographs of people, the cityscape and the northern German dike landscape. Her study of Emden combines shots of boatmen, carters and other occupational groups with scenes of the harbour with its herring factory and views of the Hanseatic city’s architecture and cultural monuments. Heise would continue in the following decades to work with the stylistic device of linking varied perspectives.

In 1937-1938, Heise and her husband took an extended trip to the islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix, Jamaica and Hispaniola in search of traces of her Caribbean grandmother. The PHOTOGRAPHIC TRAVEL REPORTAGE she created during the journey conjoins portraits with scenes of the landscape and built environment. In addition to the sea, exotic vegetation and architecture, she evinced a keen interest in the people she encountered and the different ways of life of the various social classes. Her subjects include the wife of a priest, an elegantly dressed Caribbean lady she spied on a ferry as well as a chambermaid in a grand hotel and the children of market vendors. By addressing everyday human experiences, Heise’s work thus anticipates the humanist photography of the post-war period. After the war, Heise’s travel photography became even more spontaneous and situational. In Naples in the 1960s, she captured the colourful comings and goings at the harbour, and in 1969 she observed the process of wood being loaded onto ships at a port in Finland. The photographer’s pronounced interest in painting a broad portrait of society with its different classes and cultures is in evidence once more in her images of New York’s Central Park (1970).

Another consistent theme in Heise’s work is LANDSCAPE PHOTO­GRAPHY. Until an advanced age, she engaged in an almost meditative contemplation of trees and their root systems, remaining true to her matter-of-fact, objective approach. Her nature observations intensified even further after she moved to Nußdorf am Inn, where starting in 1960 she produced extensive series of scenes of the Upper Bavarian winter landscape surrounding her new home. Photography would remain an important means of expression for her until the very last; she was still photographing passing clouds from the window of the residential home where she spent her final years.

Hildegard Heise, born in Lübeck in 1897, initially trained during the First World War as a kindergarten teacher, baby nurse and social worker, unusual occupations for a woman from the upper middle class that testify to her social commitment. After marrying Carl Georg Heise in 1922, she gave up these activities and took up photography, studying in 1928 with her contemporary Albert Renger-Patzsch, a friend of the couple who was at the time a museum director in Lübeck. She accompanied Renger-Patzsch to Holland and Alsace as his assistant. From 1929 to 1930 she continued her training with Hans Finsler (head of the photography class at the Burg Giebichenstein School of Art in Halle) and spent three months working in Grete Kolliner’s portrait studio in Vienna. In 1930 Heise exhibited at the “Internationale Ausstellung – Das Lichtbild” in Munich. Thereafter she participated in a showing of the “Kurt Kirchbach Collection” at the Hamburger Kunstverein in 1932 and in an exhibition on “Contemporary German Photography” at Mills College in California around 1934. Her photographs were featured in magazines including Atlantis, Das Deutsche Familienblatt and the Allgemeiner Wegweiser. Heise sold her pictures through the photography agencies Bavaria and kind-foto and accepted commissions to document works of art and decorative art and architecture, including for the publication Das Lübecker Orgelbuch (1931). From 1945 until the early 1970s, Heise continued to pursue her artistic activities in private.

Press release from the Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

 

Anita Rée (German, 1885-1933) 'Portrait of Hildegard Heise' 1927

 

Anita Rée (German, 1885-1933)
Portrait of Hildegard Heise
1927
Oil on canvas
40.6 x 35.6cm
Hamburger Kunsthalle
© Hamburger Kunsthalle / bpk
Foto: Elke Walford

 

 

“I can no longer find my way in such a world, to which I no longer belong and I have no desire but to leave it. What is the point – without a family, without the once loved art and without any people – to continue to vegetate alone in such an indescribable, madness-riddled world … ?”


Anita Rée in her farewell letter to her sister before committing suicide in 1933

 

 

Anita Clara Rée (born 9 February 1885 in Hamburg, died 12 December 1933 in Kampen) was a German avant-garde painter during the Weimar Republic. After she took her own life the anti-Semitic government declared her work degenerate. Her works were saved by a groundskeeper. …

In 1930, she received a commission to create a triptych for the altar at the new Ansgarkirche in Langenhorn. The church fathers were not happy with her designs, however, and the commission was withdrawn in 1932 over “religious concerns”. Meanwhile, the Nazis had denounced her as a Jew and the Hamburg Art Association called her an “alien”. Shortly after, she moved to Sylt.

She was a suicide in 1933, partly as a result of having been subjected to such hostility and continuing harassment by antisemitic forces, partly due to disappointments on the personal level. In a note to her sister, she decried the insanity of the world. In 1937, the Nazis designated Rée’s work as “Degenerate art” and began purging it from museum collections. Wilhelm Werner, a groundskeeper at the Kunsthalle Hamburg preserved many of Rée’s paintings by hiding them in his apartment.

Text from the Wikipedia website

 

Anita Rée is one of the most fascinating and enigmatic artist of the 1920s. In many respects she lived a life in between worlds: as an independent woman in an art world on the verge between tradition and Modernism, as a regional artist with international aspirations, as a native from Hamburg brought up as a Protestant, with South American and Jewish roots. The works of Anita Rée (1885-1933) also reflect the at times radical changes in modern society at the beginning of the 20th century. Yet their main focus lies on the search for one’s own identity that is still highly topical and existential.

In hauntingly intense paintings, Rée depicts both people of different origins and the self as a foreign being. Her intimate female nudes continue to touch us today. Portraits of society gentlemen, the southern landscape as a place of yearning, worldly figure paintings with religious overtones or lone animals in stark dunes mirror the wide variety of her motives.

Text from the Hamburger Kunsthalle website [Online] Cited 12/02/2022

 

Hildegard Heise (1897–1979) 'Self-portrait' 1930s

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Self-portrait
1930s
Gelatin silver paper
22.7 x 16.8cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Estate Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Alfred Mahlau mit Filmstreifen' (Alfred Mahlau with film strips) 1928-1933

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Alfred Mahlau mit Filmstreifen (Alfred Mahlau with film strips)
1928-1933
Gelatin silver paper
23.2 x 17.4cm
Private collection
© Nachlass Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Alfred Mahlau (German, 1894-1967)

Alfred Mahlau (21 June 1894 – 22 January 1967) German painter, illustrator and teacher.

Alfred Mahlau was born in Berlin on 21 June 1894. He was best known for his graphical work and illustrations, and for the large stained glass window, Dance of Death, in the Lübeck Marienkirche (St. Mary’s Church in Lübeck), which paid homage to a famous mural of the Dance of Death in the church that was destroyed in the bombing of Lübeck during World War II. His books include a number of works with paintings and drawings of Hamburg and the Hamburg port. In the 1920s Mahlau created packaging design for Niederegger, and in 1927 he created the company profile that it still uses today.

During the Third Reich he was a celebrated artist, and was drafted only at a very late stage, to Berlin in April of 1945. He was captured by the Soviets, and held in custody for a couple of months. After the war he became a professor in 1946 at the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts in Lerchenfeld.

He died in Hamburg on 22 January 1967.

Text from the Wikipedia website

 

Hildegard Heise (1897-1979) 'Ulrike von Borries in a deck chair' 1928-1933

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Ulrike von Borries in a deck chair
1928-1933
Gelatin silver paper
39.2 x 29.3cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Estate Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Badekarren, Carolles' (Bathing carts, Carolles) 1928-1933

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Badekarren, Carolles (Bathing carts, Carolles)
1928-1933
Gelatin silver paper
17.2 x 23.1cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Estate Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Diwandecke von Alen Müller-Hellwig' (Divan corner of Alen Müller-Hellwig) c. 1930

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Diwandecke von Alen Müller-Hellwig (Divan corner of Alen Müller-Hellwig)
c. 1930
Gelatin silver paper
23.5 x 17.5cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Nachlass Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Alen Müller-Hellwig (German, 1901-1993)

Alen Müller-Hellwig, née Müller ( October 7, 1901 in Lauenburg in Pomerania – December 9, 1993 in Lübeck) was a German weaver.

Alen Müller learned hand weaving and embroidery, first at the Hamburg School of Applied Arts as a student of Paul Helms and Maria Brinckmann, then at the Munich School of Applied Arts with Else Jaskolla. In 1925 she passed the master’s examination as an embroiderer and in 1928 as a hand weaver.

From 1926 to 1991 she had a workshop for hand weaving in Lübeck. In 1934 she was given the castle gate (tower and the customs officer’s house to the east ) as a place to work and live. She had been married to the violin maker Günther Hellwig (1903-1985) since 1937, who also moved his workshop here and devoted himself specifically to building the viola da gamba .

As one of the first weavers, she created a tapestry using only undyed sheep’s wool, working solely with the natural shades and material appeal of the undyed and partially unwashed wool. When Der Baum, her first work of this kind, was exhibited in the Grassi Museum in Leipzig in autumn 1927, it caused a sensation. She was then invited to all major exhibitions of German arts and crafts abroad.

Her style came close to the ideas of the Bauhaus. She “invented constructive motifs from the technique of warp and weft.” With the exhibition Handwoven Carpets from the Best German Weaving Mills in the Behnhaus, Carl Georg Heise offered her the first great opportunity to present herself in Lübeck and showed her work again in the Hallway of the Behnhaus on the occasion of the major Lübeck Carl Milles exhibition in 1929. From 1929, Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich ordered a series of monochrome, hand-knotted sheep’s wool carpets from her for the Villa Tugendhat, the Barcelona pavilionand buildings in Paris and Milan. In 1931 she received the honorary award of the city of Berlin. She took part in the world exhibitions in Chicago in 1933 and in Paris in 1937. In Paris she received a gold medal.

Alfred Mahlau, Robert Pudlich and Ervin Bossányi, among others, provided designs for their carpets. A template by Bossányi was her first figurative weaving motif. In 1932 she was the only woman to co-found the artist group Werkgruppe Lübeck with the painters Curt Stoermer and Hans Peters, the graphic artist Alfred Mahlau, the garden architect Harry Maasz and the architects Wilhelm Bräck and Emil Steffann.

From 1934 to 1939, 70 carpets were made based on designs by Alfred Mahlau, mainly on behalf of the Reich Air Ministry, but also for municipalities and private individuals. This kept the growing workshop busy. In 1935 it comprised ten looms, a wool washer, a spinning mill with nine spinning wheels, a showroom and an office and sales room and employed three journeymen, four apprentices, two clerks, three unskilled workers, nine homeworkers and two interns. The first carpet in this series was the curtain Drei Möwen for Kiel-Holtenau Airport. Most of the works from this period have been destroyed or lost. Some examples including the cycle However, the four elements from 1939 have been preserved because they were acquired by Walter Passarge for the Kunsthalle Mannheim. The cooperation with Mahlau ended in 1940 because Alen Müller-Hellwig wanted to support Hildegard Osten, who had worked for many years, after opening her own workshop. In March 1942, during the German occupation, an exhibition was held in the Reichsmuseum Amsterdam under the title Exhibition of modern tapestries based on designs by Alfred Mahlau and Alen Müller-Hellwig Lübeck. fabrics and embroidery. Alfred Mahlau Lübeck. Cardboard boxes for tapestries from the workshop of Alen Müller Hellwig.

Alen Müller-Hellwig turned back to her own designs and created until 1942 a series of tapestries with plant motifs such as Foxglove Meadow (1940), Spiraea, Bear’s Hogweed and Mullein. Also after the air raid on Lübeck on March 29, 1942, where her workshop remained undamaged, she continued to run it in the Lübeck Burgtor (she brought her two children Friedemann and Barbara to safety in Timmendorfer Strand). After the end of the war, the work was expanded to include textiles for everyday use (bed linen, towels, tablecloths) and employed numerous women, especially from East Germany, e.g. Spinners from East Prussia. After the industrial production of textiles got going again, she limited her work to decorative pieces and floor carpets. In 1954 she received the Art Prize of the State of Schleswig-Holstein. Alen Müller-Hellwig ran her workshop until 1990.

Her last trainee Ruth Löbe (1959-2016) took over the workshop in 1992 and continued it until her death in January 2016.

Text translated by Google Translate from the German Wikipedia website

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Die Teppich-Weberin Alen Müller-Helwig bei der Arbeit' (Carpet weaver Alen Müller-Hellwig at work) 1930

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Die Teppich-Weberin Alen Müller-Helwig bei der Arbeit (Carpet weaver Alen Müller-Hellwig at work)
1930
Gelatin silver paper
23.3 x 17.3cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Nachlass Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Blick in das Kakteenhaus in Bonn/Rhein' (View of the cactus house in Bonn/Rhein) c. 1935

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Blick in das Kakteenhaus in Bonn/Rhein (View of the cactus house in Bonn/Rhein)
c. 1935
Gelatin silver paper
23.4 x 17.4cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Nachlass Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Bergkristall' (Rock Crystal) c. 1935

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Bergkristall (Rock Crystal)
c. 1935
Gelatin silver paper
23.8 x 17.8cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Nachlass Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Technisches Porzellan, Berliner Manufaktur, Berlin 1935' (Technical porcelain, Berlin manufacturer, Berlin 1935) 1935

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Technisches Porzellan, Berliner Manufaktur, Berlin 1935 (Technical porcelain, Berlin manufacturer, Berlin 1935)
1935
Gelatin silver paper
39.3 x 29.1cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Nachlass Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Rathaus Stadtseite, Emden' (Town hall city side, Emden) Before 1937

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Rathaus Stadtseite, Emden (Town hall city side, Emden)
Before 1937
Gelatin silver paper
23 x 17cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Nachlass Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Siegfried Leber, cow hand in Neuendorf on Hiddensee, Pomerania' 1934-1938

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Siegfried Leber, cow hand in Neuendorf on Hiddensee, Pomerania
1934-1938
Gelatin silver paper
22.7 x 16.7cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Estate Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Portrait of a Girl, Hispaniola' 1937-1938

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Portrait of a Girl, Hispaniola
1937-1938
Gelatin silver paper
17.3 x 12.4cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Estate Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Mutter und Kind auf dem Dampfer zwischen den Inseln' (Mother and child on the inter-island steamer) 1938

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Mutter und Kind auf dem Dampfer zwischen den Inseln (Mother and child on the inter-island steamer)
1938
From the series A journey through the West Indies
Gelatin silver paper
22 x 17cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Nachlass Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Albert Renger-Patzsch mit Zylinder' (Albert Renger-Patzsch with top hat) After 1950

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Albert Renger-Patzsch mit Zylinder (Albert Renger-Patzsch with top hat)
After 1950
Gelatin silver paper
23.3 x 17.3cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Nachlass Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Arnold Küstermann' 1951

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Arnold Küstermann
1951
Gelatin silver paper
23.2 x 17.1cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Nachlass Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Winterliche Bäume, Hamburg' (Wintry trees, Hamburg) 1955

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Winterliche Bäume, Hamburg (Wintry trees, Hamburg)
1955
Gelatin silver paper
23 x 17.3cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Nachlass Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

A consistent theme in Hildegard Heise’s work is landscape photography. Up until old age, the photographer repeatedly dealt with trees and roots in an almost meditative repetition, while remaining true to her objective, sober approach. After moving to Nußdorf am Inn, she intensified her engagement with nature observation, where from 1960 extensive series about the Upper Bavarian winter landscape in the vicinity of her new place of residence were created. Photography remained Heise’s most important means of expression until the end of her life. From around 1965, Hildegard Heise photographed simultaneously in black and white and with colour slides. Heise photographed the passing clouds from the window of the residential home where she lived between 1973 and 1975.

Esther Ruelfs on the Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg website Nd [Online] Cited 11/02/2022

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Blühende Apfelbäume, Nußdorf am Inn' (Blossoming apple trees, Nußdorf am Inn) 1961

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Blühende Apfelbäume, Nußdorf am Inn (Blossoming apple trees, Nußdorf am Inn)
1961
Gelatin silver paper
23 x 17.1cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Nachlass Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979) 'Städter im Park, New York' (Townsfolk in the Park, New York) 1970

 

Hildegard Heise (German, 1897-1979)
Städter im Park, New York (Townsfolk in the Park, New York)
1970
Gelatin silver paper
19.3 x 17.4cm
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
© Nachlass Hildegard Heise, MK&G

 

 

Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
Steintorplatz, 20099 Hamburg

Opening hours:
Tuesday to Sunday 10am – 6pm
Thursday 10am – 9pm
Closed Mondays

Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg website

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European photographic research tour: Vintage August Sander photographs at Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne

Visited September 2019 posted July 2020

 

Tamara Könen of the gallery (left) and Kristina Engels from August Sander Stiftung – at Galerie Julian Sander, standing in front of August Sander's photographs

 

Tamara Könen of the gallery (left) and Kristina Engels from August Sander Stiftung – at Galerie Julian Sander, standing in front of August Sander’s photographs.

 

 

On my European photographic research tour in late 2019, I had a memorable visit to Galerie Julian Sander to see some vintage and later prints from the August Sander Archive / August Sander Stiftung with Tamara Könen from the gallery (left) and Kristina Engels from August Sander Stiftung.

It was a privilege to be able to see about 10 prints… the highlights being a stunning 1929-1930 vintage landscape, a vintage carnivalesque image of the Cologne avant-garde and a later print by his son of Painter’s Wife [Helene Abelen] 1926. The vintage landscape, like the vintage prints of Sudek, possessed no true black or white, the tonal range prescribed between zones 2-8.

The use of low depth of field in the portraits was outstanding. For example the shoes of Helene are completely out of focus whereas her hands are as crisp and clear as a summer breeze. Most astonishing was the panache of the bohemians, with the outstretched arm top left… printed on matt brown toned paper with a thin gold edge.

Another vintage print that showed selective depth of field was the photograph of a man with his dog, Junglehrer (Young Teacher) 1928. The dog’s lower legs were completely out of focus (Sander tilting his large format camera) making this oh so German photograph seem so surreal!

Other prints had a thin black edge and the vintage press print landscape (c. 1920s) was printed on thin single weight paper, while the vintage photograph of the sculptor Professor Ludwig Benh shows an original Sander mount – the print mounted behind an artist cut window. All prints were enlargements from 4×5” glass negatives or German equivalent size.

Such a wonderful learning experience! Thank you to the gallery for their time and knowledge.

Dr Marcus Bunyan


Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image. Most photographs © Marcus Bunyan and Galerie Julian Sander

 

 

3 vintage prints, the left one with black edge floating free of the backboard; the second c .1920s of a Communist rally; and the third of an industrialist (Großindustrieller / The Industrialist, 1927)

 

3 vintage silver gelatin prints, the left one with black edge floating free of the backboard; the second c. 1920s of a Communist rally; and the third of an industrialist (Großindustrieller / The Industrialist, 1927)
Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964). 'Das Siebengebirge: Blick vom Rolandsbogen' [The Siebengebirge: view from the Rolandsbogen] 1929-30 (center) and 'Untitled [Remagen Bridge on the Rhine]' c. 1930 (right)

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964)
Das Siebengebirge: Blick vom Rolandsbogen [The Siebengebirge: view from the Rolandsbogen] 1929-1930 (center) and Untitled [Remagen Bridge on the Rhine] c. 1930 (right)
Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964) 'Das Siebengebirge: Blick vom Rolandsbogen' [The Siebengebirge: view from the Rolandsbogen] 1929-1930

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964)
Das Siebengebirge: Blick vom Rolandsbogen [The Siebengebirge: view from the Rolandsbogen]
1929-1930
Vintage gelatin silver print
Also titled:
Siebengebirge von der linken Rheinseite gesehen [Siebengebirge seen from the left side of the Rhine]
Blick vom Rolandsbogen auf das Siebengebirge mit Drachenfels [View from Roland Arch on the Siebengebirge with Drachenfels]
Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964) 'Das Siebengebirge: Blick vom Rolandsbogen' [The Siebengebirge: view from the Rolandsbogen] 1929-1930

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964)
Das Siebengebirge: Blick vom Rolandsbogen [The Siebengebirge: view from the Rolandsbogen]
1929-1930
Vintage gelatin silver print
Also titled:
Siebengebirge von der linken Rheinseite gesehen [Siebengebirge seen from the left side of the Rhine]
Blick vom Rolandsbogen auf das Siebengebirge mit Drachenfels [View from Roland Arch on the Siebengebirge with Drachenfels]
Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne
Photo:
Marcus Bunyan

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964) 'Das Siebengebirge: Blick vom Rolandsbogen' [The Siebengebirge: view from the Rolandsbogen] 1929-1930

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964)
Das Siebengebirge: Blick vom Rolandsbogen [The Siebengebirge: view from the Rolandsbogen]
1929-1930
Vintage gelatin silver print

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964) 'Untitled [Remagen Bridge on the Rhine]' c. 1930

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964)
Untitled [Remagen Bridge on the Rhine]
c. 1930
Vintage gelatin silver press print
Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964) 'Untitled [Bohemians: avant-garde of Cologne]' 1920s (left) and 'Professor Ludwig Behn' 1920s (right)

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964)
Untitled [Bohemians: avant-garde of Cologne] 1920s (left) and Professor Ludwig Behn 1920s (right)
Vintage gelatin silver print with gold edge printed on matt warm toned paper
Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964) 'Untitled [Bohemians: avant-garde of Cologne]' 1920s

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964)
Untitled [Bohemians: avant-garde of Cologne]
1920s
Vintage gelatin silver print with gold edge printed on matt warm toned paper
Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964) 'Untitled [Bohemians: avant-garde of Cologne]' 1920s

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964)
Untitled [Bohemians: avant-garde of Cologne]
1920s
Vintage gelatin silver print with gold edge printed on matt warm toned paper
Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964) 'Professor Ludwig Behn, Bildhaver, Munich' 1920s

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964)
Professor Ludwig Behn, Bildhaver, Münich
1920s
Gelatin silver print

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964) 'Professor Ludwig Behn, Bildhaver, Munich' 1920s (detail)

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964)
Professor Ludwig Behn, Bildhaver, Münich
1920s
Vintage gelatin silver print with original Sander mount
Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964) 'Painter's Wife [Helene Abelen]' 1926

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964)
Painter’s Wife [Helene Abelen]
1926
Later gelatin silver print by Sander’s son
Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

This photograph shows Helene Abelen, wife of the Cologne painter, Peter Abelen. During the 1920s August Sander befriended many Cologne artists because of his involvement with the Cologne Progressive Artists Group (Gruppe Progressiver Künstler Köln). In 1926 Sander was asked by Peter Abelen to create a portrait of his young wife. With her short, slicked-back hair, collared shirt, thin necktie and trousers, Frau Abelen is presented as a distinctly androgynous figure. Her masculine garb and haircut, as well as the cigarette held between her teeth, signal a defiance of traditional gender roles. Staring determinedly out at the viewer Helene Abelen’s animated expression is unusual for a Sander portrait and falls somewhere between bravado and agitation.

This portrait reflects the so-called ‘new woman’ of the Weimar Republic. The concept of the ‘new woman’ dates from before the First World War but became firmly rooted during it when women were mobilised in the workforce. Within Germany this created considerable anxiety about women’s roles, particularly in relation to the family. In 1928, on the tenth anniversary of the end of the war, the Münchner Illustrierte Presse showed on its cover a photograph of a young woman, with short hair and skirt, astride a motorcycle with a lit cigarette in hand, with the heading, ‘Only ten years – a different world’. Like this magazine image, Sander’s portrait of Helene Abelen reflected a consciousness about the blurring of gender roles in the wake of the ‘new woman’.

Painter’s Wife represents an anomaly in Sander’s work. For the most part, his depictions of women show them as wives and mothers, as the soul of the home and the family. Contrary to appearances, this portrait should not be taken to represent an unqualified vision of female independence. The costume Helene Abelen is wearing was created for her by Peter Abelen and the haircut she sports was also his choice. Her daughter later commented of this work: ‘This was the creation of my father. He wanted her to look like this. He always did our dresses’ (quoted in Greenberg 2000, p. 121).

Matthew Macaulay
November 2011

Text from the Tate website [Online] Cited 24/06/2020

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964) 'Junglehrer' (Young Teacher) 1928

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964)
Junglehrer (Young Teacher)
1928
Vintage gelatin silver print with black edge
Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964) 'Junglehrer' (Young Teacher) 1928

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964)
Junglehrer (Young Teacher)
1928
Vintage gelatin silver print with black edge
Galerie Julian Sander, Cologne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Galerie Julian Sander
Cäcilienstr. 48
50667 Cologne
Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 221 170 50 70

Opening hours:
Tuesday – Friday 12.00 – 18.00

Galerie Julian Sander website

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Exhibition: ‘Raoul Hausmann. Vision in Action’ at Jeu de Paume, Paris

Exhibition dates: 6th February – 20th May 2018

Curator: Cécile Bargues

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971) 'Untitled (Vera Broïdo)' c. 1931

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
Untitled (Vera Broïdo)
c. 1931
© ADAGP, Paris, 2018
© Berlinische Galerie – Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

 

Spirit of his time?

Surrealism, solarisation, mobiles, photomontage, geometric repetition and simplification of form, directional lighting, distortion, female allusions, strong use of diagonals, romanticism, poetics. All the usual tropes of the photographic art of the day are present, but somehow the images never move me, or impinge lastingly on my consciousness.

Hausmann’s work sits at the intersection of New Vision (the development of photography as a medium of untold expressive power and as a primary vehicle of modern consciousness) and New Objectivity (a sharply focused, objective documentary quality; a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against expressionism) photographic movements. The interstices of freedom and wonder, which he referred to as ‘beauty without beauty’, both experimental and ‘classical’ at the same time.

I’m not convinced. “His images of plants, sea spray, changing light and materials, are images of disorder, stripped of all authoritarian vision.” Really? To me his work seems very authoritarian… very male, very objective but subjected to the photographers’ will. Triumph of the Will.

I’d rather look at the infinitely more interesting female artists of the era, for example Eva BesnyöClaude CahunGermaine Krull or Florence Henri to name but a few. Now they were cooking with gas!

Dr Marcus Bunyan


Many thankx to Jeu de Paume for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

 

 

To this day, Raoul Hausmann’s photography has not had a dedicated museum exhibition in France. As a photographer, Hausmann has long remained underrated and unheralded. However his key position in 20th century avant-garde photography has continually been re-evaluated and his importance is widely acknowledged these days.

We know Hausmann as the prominent artist of Dada Berlin, as the author of assemblages, collages, lautgedichte, etc, yet the vicissitudes of history caused the obliteration of his photography, an essential facet of his œuvre. From 1927 onwards Hausmann became an avid and restless photographer. His photographic practice quickly became a cornerstone of his multi-faceted reflections and activities, pushing him in a new direction which culminated in his forced departure from Ibiza in 1936.

Considering Hausmann’s clandestine crossing of the century, it is no surprise that his photographic œuvre was forgotten. Labelled a ‘degenerate’ artist by the Nazis, he hastily left Germany in 1933. As an exile, Hausmann suffered the dispersion, and sometimes the destruction, of his work. His photography was seldom displayed and survived unnoticed until the late seventies. It was long supposed to be lost, until an archive (now at the Berlinische Galerie) was almost miraculously discovered at his daughter’s home after her death.

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971) 'Untitled (Dune Landscape)' Between 1927 and 1933

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
Untitled (Dune Landscape)
Between 1927 and 1933
© ADAGP, Paris, 2018
© Berlinische Galerie – Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971) 'Enfants de la Frise [Children of Friesland]' Between 1927 and 1933

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
Enfants de la Frise (Children of Friesland)
Between 1927 and 1933
© ADAGP, Paris, 2018
© Berlinische Galerie – Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971) 'Nu sur la plage [Nude on the beach]' Between 1927 and 1933

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
Nu sur la plage (Nude on the beach)
Between 1927 and 1933
© Musée d’art moderne et contemporain de Saint-Étienne Métropole
© ADAGP, Paris, 2017

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971) 'Untitled (Chrysanthemum flower)' Between 1927 and 1933

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
Untitled (Chrysanthemum flower)
Between 1927 and 1933
© ADAGP, Paris, 2018
© Berlinische Galerie – Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

 

Highlights of the exhibition

1/ Raoul Hausmann was a central figure of the Berlin Dada movement, a pioneer of sound poetry, who spearheaded collage and photomontage. He was also a writer, editor, and experimenter across all genres. Franz Jung referred to him as a ‘cultural agitator of 1920s’ Berlin’. In the late 1930s, Hausmann was also a passionate, prolific, sensitive and lyrical photographer. Bringing together over 130 vintage prints, all produced by Hausmann himself, this exhibition presents a photographic oeuvre that has remained unrecognised and unheralded for too long

2/ This is the first time that Hausmann’s photographic work has been the subject of such an extensive retrospective in France. The exhibition opens at the Point du Jour in Cherbourg, before coming to the Jeu de Paume. ‘Raoul Hausmann. Vision in Action’ benefits from a number of exceptional loans, from institutions boasting collections of work by the artist, primarily the Musée départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart and the Berlinische Galerie; collections that continued to grow until relatively recently. Other first-rate public and private collections, both in France and Germany, have contributed to the exhibition, with some work being displayed for the first time

3/ In 1931, Hausmann considered himself a photographer. His practice was honed far from Berlin, in the dunes of the Baltic and the North Sea. An emotive photographer, capturing remarkable moments or sights on his numerous walks, he never sought the perfection of an overly immaculate image, seamlessly constructed and arranged, but rather the interstices of freedom and wonder, which he referred to as ‘beauty without beauty’. This sense of calm or tranquillity can be seen in the way his work has resisted and maintained its dignity, against the ravages of time

4/ Within the space of an intense decade – from 1927 until his forced departure in 1936, from the island of Ibiza, where he had sought refuge in 1933, shortly after the Nazis’ rise to power – Raoul Hausmann produced over a thousand prints, many of which were published or exhibited in their day, before taking up residence in the archives of memory. These images and their diffusion situated him in a specific milieu – Germany, Paris (where he spent time in 1935), and later in Czechoslovakia (the only retrospective devoted to the artist’s work during his lifetime was held in Prague, in 1937). Hausmann’s work incites the public to reflect upon a network and history of photography, inhabited by figures such as August Sander, Raoul Ubac, László Moholy-Nagy, etc

5/ At the crossroads of the New Vision and New Objectivity photographic movements, Raoul Hausmann’s work is constructed within a poetics of distance or difference with regard to normality. Both experimental and ‘classical’ at the same time, he liked nothing better than resolving and surpassing oppositions. His sublime sculptural and mineral nudes contrast with the monstrosity of the Nazi body. His images of plants, sea spray, changing light and materials, are images of disorder, stripped of all authoritarian vision. In all respects, this photography, produced using a bare minimum of equipment, serves a project of a heightened existence

6/ Hausmann reflected about the social and political uses of images, particularly in Ibiza, in his work on vernacular architecture, an inventory of buildings that aimed to invalidate the idea of ‘origin’ and ‘race’. This project around the notion of habitat, in the philosophical sense of the term, responds ultimately, like the ensemble of his work, to the maxim that underlines his oeuvre: ‘you alone should construct the limits of your universe’.

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971) 'Untitled (Foot in the sand)' c. 1931

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
Untitled (Foot in the sand)
c. 1931
© ADAGP, Paris, 2018
© Berlinische Galerie – Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971) 'Untitled (Dune grass)' c. 1931

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
Untitled (Dune grass)
c. 1931
© ADAGP, Paris, 2018
© Berlinische Galerie – Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971) 'Petite Fleur en Herbe [Small flower in grass]' 1932

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
Petite Fleur en Herbe [Small flower in grass]
1932
Photomontage
© ADAGP, Paris, 2018
© Berlinische Galerie – Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971) 'Untitled (Thistle)' 1932

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
Untitled (Thistle)
1932
© ADAGP, Paris, 2018
© Berlinische Galerie – Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971) 'Dune mobile' September 1931

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
Dune mobile
September 1931
© ADAGP, Paris, 2018
© Berlinische Galerie – Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971) 'Deux nus féminins allongés sur une plage [Two naked women lying on a beach]' c. 1931-1934

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
Deux nus féminins allongés sur une plage (Two naked women lying on a beach)
c. 1931-1934
© ADAGP, Paris, 2017
Photo: © Centre Pompidou, MNAM-CCI. Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/Guy Carrard

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971) 'Untitled' 1931

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
Untitled
1931
© Musée départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971) 'Regard dans le miroir' 1930

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
Regard dans le miroir
1930
© Musée départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971) 'Untitled' 1931

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
Untitled
1931
© Musée départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971) 'The Triangle (Vera Broïdo)' c. 1931

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
The Triangle (Vera Broïdo)
c. 1931
Coll. Marc Smirnow
© ADAGP, Paris, 2017

 

Raoul Hausmann (1886-1971) 'The Triangle (Vera Broïdo)' c. 1931 (alternate version)

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
The Triangle (Vera Broïdo) (Alternate version)
c. 1931

 

 

To this day, Raoul Hausmann’s photography has not had a dedicated museum exhibition in France. As a photographer, Hausmann has long remained underrated and unheralded. However his key position in 20th century avant-garde photography has continually been re-evaluated and his importance is widely acknowledged these days.

We know Hausmann as the prominent artist of Dada Berlin, as the author of assemblages, collages, lautgedichte, etc, yet the vicissitudes of history caused the obliteration of his photography, an essential facet of his oeuvre. From 1927 onwards Hausmann became an avid and restless photographer. His photographic practice quickly became a cornerstone of his multi-faceted reflections and activities, pushing him in a new direction which culminated in his forced departure from Ibiza in 1936.

Between 1927 and 1936, Hausmann engaged in a discussion about the nature and the role of photography with August Sander. He published a body of theoretical texts and was part of a group that included such notorious figures as Raoul Ubac, Man Ray, Elfriede Stegemeyer, and Lázló Moholy-Nagy. The latter once stated: ‘All that I know, I’ve learnt it from Raoul’.

Considering Hausmann’s clandestine crossing of the century, it is no surprise that his photographic oeuvre was forgotten. Labelled a ‘degenerate’ artist by the Nazis, he hastily left Germany in 1933. As an exile, Hausmann suffered the dispersion, and sometimes the destruction, of his work. His photography was seldom displayed and survived unnoticed until the late seventies. It was long supposed to be lost, until an archive (now at the Berlinische Galerie) was almost miraculously discovered at his daughter’s home after her death.

The French photographic archive of Hausmann’s work, kept mainly at the Musée de Rochechouart and opened in 1985, continued to grow up until 2010. This institutionalisation of his work has generated an on-going re-appraisal. Hausmann the photographer is astonishing. In contrast to the sarcastic and biting tone generally associated with his Dada period, his photographs are a means to pacification. They convey a sense of reconciliation, a serenity that did not prevail before. In the late twenties Hausmann felt more and more oppressed in Berlin. He took long vacations in small villages by the North Sea and the Baltic, villages described by his partner Vera Broïdo as ‘shelters’ and ‘hide-outs for artists’. There, he took photographs of the sand, the foam, the bogs, trees, naked bodies, curvy dunes, wheat, weeds, insignificant things that dazzled him. His attention also focused on humble objects, cheese graters, cane woven chairs, wicker baskets, which he transformed through the use of light and shadow. Hausmann calls these experimentations ‘melanography’. They strikingly exemplify his definition of what an image is: ‘the dynamics of a living process’.

Hausmann’s arrival in Ibiza in 1933, shortly after the Reichstag fire, opened a new perspective. Fascinated by the peasant houses built in the shape of white cubes, he began a photographic inventory of this ‘architecture without architects’. Photography became partly a study dedicated to vernacular architecture from an anthropological point of view. Hausmann also discussed notions such as ‘origin’ or ‘race’ that emerged in contemporary architectural circles. Fully integrated in the island’s life, he lived in a ‘state of dream’, as if outside time. Hausmann also pursued a project begun in Germany that revolved around two broad categories, portraits and the vegetational or organic forms. The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, in which he briefly took part as a Republican (Ibiza being the first territory abandoned to the Francoists as early as 1936), marks the beginning of his wandering across Europe. During his exile, Hausmann no longer had the possibility of dedicating himself so passionately to photography.

Text from Jeu de Paume press kit

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971) 'Monsieur Mariano Ribas' 1933

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
Monsieur Mariano Ribas
1933
@ Musée départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971) 'Peasant house (Can Rafal)' 1934

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
Peasant house (Can Rafal)
1934
© Musée départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971) 'Three chairs' 1934

 

Raoul Hausmann (Austrian, 1886-1971)
Three chairs
1934
© Musée départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart

 

Marthe Prévôt (b. 1923) 'Raoul Hausmann tenant sa sculpture-assemblage L'Esprit de notre temps' (Raoul Hausmann holding his sculpture-assembly The Spirit of our time) 1967

 

Marthe Prévôt (b. 1923)
Raoul Hausmann tenant sa sculpture-assemblage L’Esprit de notre temps
Raoul Hausmann holding his sculpture-assembly The Spirit of our time

1967
© Documentation du Musée départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964) 'Raoul Hausmann en danseur' 1929

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964)
Raoul Hausmann en danseur
1929
© Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur – August Sander Archiv, Cologne, ADAGP, Paris, 2017

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964) 'Inventor and Dadaist (Raoul Hausmann)' 1929, printed 1990

 

August Sander (German, 1876-1964)
Inventor and Dadaist (Raoul Hausmann)
1929, printed 1990
Silver gelatin print
258 x 193mm
Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by Anthony d’Offay

 

 

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