Tag: Benjamin Katz Ber­lin Havel­höhe

Exhibition dates: 7th June – 22nd September 2019

Visited September 2019 posted March 2020

Cu­ra­tor: Bar­bara En­gel­bach

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print

 

 

The eye of the law guards

I saw this TERRIFIC exhibition at Museum Ludwig while I was on my European photography research trip. None of the photographs are available online, so I am grateful that I took some iPhone installation images while I was there.

Tight, focused social documentary images that have real presence and power. They feel cooly and directly observed, essential, gritty, a unique take on an in/hospitable institution and the people in it. The word Havelhöhe translates to “hospital”. Katz was there for 18 months for the treatment of tuberculosis.

I admire the light, subject matter and the photographer’s point of view, his frontal and demanding perspective.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

All iPhone installation images taken by Marcus Bunyan. Please click n the photographs for a larger version of the image.

 

 

 

Installation views of the exhibition Benjamin Katz Berlin Havelhöhe, 1960/61 at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Photos: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Ben­jamin Katz became known in the 1980s as a fixture of the art scene in West Germany. He took portraits of artists such as Ge­org Baselitz, James Lee Byars, A.R. Penck, Cindy Sh­er­man, and Rose­marie Trock­el, pho­to­graphed the bustling art scene at openings, and doc­u­ment­ed the cre­a­tion of major ex­hi­bi­tions such as West­kunst in Cologne in 1981, doc­u­men­ta 7 in Kas­sel in 1982, and von hi­er aus in Düs­sel­dorf in 1984.

On the oc­ca­sion of the eightieth birthday of Benjamin Katz (born on June 14, 1939, in An­tw­erp, Bel­gi­um), the Mu­se­um Lud­wig will present his series of photographs Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961), which has never before been shown in its en­tire­ty. The series was re­cent­ly acquired di­rect­ly from the artist’s archive. Even before Katz de­vot­ed himself pro­fes­sio­n­al­ly to pho­tog­ra­phy, he captured his sur­round­ings in 1960 and 1961 during an eighteen-month stay at the Havel­höhe hospital. Suf­fer­ing from tu­ber­cu­lo­sis, he spent his time there as a patient and pho­to­graphed ev­ery­day life: his fellow patients, the hos­pi­tal staff, the buildings built during the Nazi era as an air force academy, and the sur­round­ing area. The pho­to­graphs rep­re­sent a socio-historical as well as an artistic and per­so­noal doc­u­ment, since they record Katz’s be­gin­n­ings as a photographer. Ber­lin Havel­höhe also ex­em­pli­fies the image of the artist as a young man.

Di­rec­tor Yil­maz Dziewior: “The Mu­se­um Lud­wig has a large col­lec­tion of Katz’s por­traits of artists span­n­ing sev­er­al de­cades. It al­so in­cludes his ex­ten­sive docu­men­ta­tion of the 1981 ex­hi­bi­tion West­kunst as well as pho­to­graphs from the in­s­tal­la­tion of many ex­hi­bi­tions. I am all the more de­light­ed that we were able to ac­quire Ber­lin Havel­höhe, a sig­ni­f­i­cant ear­ly se­ries by Katz. We would like ex­press our warmest thanks for his trust and for shar­ing his me­m­ories with us.”

The en­tire se­ries will be shown in the form of for­ty-one pho­to­graphs print­ed in three dif­fer­ent sizes and 318 vin­tage prints mount­ed on A4 pa­per. On the first floor, as part of the per­ma­nent col­lec­tion, the Mu­se­um Lud­wig will al­so pre­sent Katz’s well-known por­traits of artists, which he took dur­ing his stu­dio vis­its begin­n­ing in the 1980s, in­clud­ing Ge­org Baselitz, A.R. Penck, Ger­hard Richter, and Rose­marie Trock­el.

Ben­jamin Katz: Ber­lin Havel­höhe, 1960/1961 is the sixth pre­sen­ta­tion in the pho­tog­ra­phy room, which since 2017 has fea­tured chang­ing se­lec­tions of the approx­i­mate­ly 70,000 works from the Mu­se­um Lud­wig pho­tog­ra­phy col­lec­tion. The pho­tog­ra­phy room is lo­cat­ed in the per­ma­nent col­lec­tion on the se­cond floor.

Text from the gallery website [Online] Cited 04/03/2020

 

 

Wall text from the exhibition Benjamin Katz Berlin Havelhöhe, 1960/61 at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled (installation view)
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print

 

 

Installation view of the exhibition Benjamin Katz Berlin Havelhöhe, 1960/61 at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled (installation view)
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled (installation view)
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Installation view of the exhibition Benjamin Katz Berlin Havelhöhe, 1960/61 at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled (installation view)
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print

 

 

Installation view of the exhibition Benjamin Katz Berlin Havelhöhe, 1960/61 at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled (installation view)
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print

 

 

Installation view of the exhibition Benjamin Katz Berlin Havelhöhe, 1960/61 at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled (installation view)
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled (installation view)
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled (installation view)
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled (installation view)
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled (installation view)
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled (installation view)
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled (installation view)
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

Some of the text translates as: ‘The English finder’ (bottom left) and ‘The eye of the law guards’ (centre)

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled (installation view)
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled (installation view)
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Installation view of the exhibition Benjamin Katz Berlin Havelhöhe, 1960/61 at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled (installation view)
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled (installation view)
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled (installation view)
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print
Photo: Marcus Bunyan

 

 

Benjamin Katz (Belgian, b. 1939)
Untitled
1960-1961
From the series Ber­lin Havel­höhe (1960/1961)
Gelatin silver print

 

 

Museum Ludwig
Heinrich-Böll-Platz, 50667 Köln, Germany

Opening hours:
Tues­­day through Sun­­day: 10 am – 6 pm

Museum Ludwig website

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