The Düsseldorf School of Photography. Photographs 1961-2008 / AS GERMAN EDITION

Background information

"The Düsseldorf Photo School is recognized worldwide as a trademark for a high artistic level and a multi-layered reorientation of the medium emanating from Germany. In the photo book 'Die Düsseldorfer Photoschule. Photographien 1961-2008', Stefan Grünert analyzes this phenomenon: his pioneers and influences from the visual arts, the work of the founding couple Bernd and Hilla BECHER at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and its most important representatives with works and biographies. "In the last few decades, photography has become an internationally recognized figurehead for Düsseldorf and its art. The 'Düsseldorfer Schule', meanwhile a well-known term, is now a global trademark that stands for a high artistic level and a complex reorientation of the medium Detailed analysis of this phenomenon, which interestingly developed in one place and within an art genre, has not yet been carried out. Stefan Gronert's photo book 'Die Düsseldorfer Photoschule' fills this gap. Three subject areas are dealt with comprehensively: the pioneers who came from the visual arts and in In the late 1960s and 1970s, they began to work with, documentary or exclusively photography - Ute Klophaus and her action photographs by Joseph Beuys, the photorealistic painting by Gerhard RICHTER, the ironic use of amateur photography by Sigmar POLKE and Hans-Peter FELDMANN and Lothar BAUMGARTEN's anthropological expedition photos are documented as essential influences. The backbone is the work and teaching of Bernd and Hilla BECHER, who gave artistic photography the institutionalized roof in 1976 at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. Starting with their renewal of documentary photography, three generations of artists have expanded their photographic view of the world to include electronic painting. Affectionately known by the New York Village Voice as the 'Struffskys', Thomas STRUTH, Thomas RUFF and Andreas GURSKY achieved world fame with their idiosyncratic photo works; but also Axel HÜTTE, Candida HÖFER, Elger ESSER, Laurenz BERGES, Simone NIEWEG and Jörg SASSE have now started their own work cycles and, for their part, have started international careers. The environment of the Düsseldorf Art Academy comes into the picture with artists such as Katharina SIEVERDING and Thomas DEMAND. And finally the picture factory is illuminated, the 'Grieger Lab', where the 'Struffskys' discovered the technical possibility of large-format photography in the 80s, which they abandoned advertising, and where they invented the big print, with which they have since invented the art world hold your breath. Today the famous 'Grieger Lab' produces big prints for more than 150 artists from all over the world.

Content

The compendium 'Die Düsseldorfer Photoschule. Photographien 1961-2008' gives an initial encyclopedic overview and introduces the main artists with their most famous pictures. Since the Bauhaus, no art movement from Germany has developed such a worldwide impact as this new Düsseldorf school." (freely translated publisher's text, © Schirmer / Mosel Verlag, 2017)

Photographers in this volume

Gerhard RICHTER, Sigmar POLKE, Hans-Peter FELDMANN, Lothar BAUMGARTEN, Bernd & Hilla BECHER, Thomas STRUTH, Thomas RUFF, Andreas GURSKY, Axel HÜTTE, Candida HÖFER, Elger ESSER, Laurenz BERGES, Simone NIEWEG, Jörg SASSE, Katharina SIEVERDING, Thomas DEMAND

Photo books by these photographers

• Lothar BAUMGARTEN
  Bernd und Hilla BECHER
  Laurenz BERGES
  Thomas DEMAND
  Elger ESSER
  Hans-Peter FELDMANN
  Andreas GURSKY
  Candida HÖFER
  Axel HÜTTE
  Simone NIEWEG
  Sigmar POLKE
  Gerhard RICHTER
  Thomas RUFF
  Jörg SASSE
  Katharina SIEVERDING
  Thomas STRUTH

About the author Stefan Gronert