| | | | | | | | Aenne Biermann
Helga, um 1930
Gelatin silver print, 23,7 x 17,8 cm
Museum Folkwang, Essen | | | | | | Intimacy with Things | | | | 21 February – 1 June 2020 | | | | Opening: Thursday, 20 February, 7pm | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Aenne Biermann
Untitled (Three Eggs), 1928
Gelatin silver print, 44,6 x 60 cm
Museum Folkwang, Essen | | | | | | Museum Folkwang is opening its 2020 programme of exhibitions with a long-overdue retrospective on this renowned photographer. 100 photographs provide an overview of Biermann’s brief but productive working life. Highlights include portraits of children, rock and plant studies, and still lifes. The exhibition (21 February to 1 June 2020) is the result of a collaboration with the Ann and Jürgen Wilde Foundation, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich.
Aenne Biermann (1898–1933) is considered one of the most important figures in 1930s Modernist photography. Biermann first delved into photography as an autodidact when she began to photograph the early stages of her children’s development. From 1926 onwards, she embarked upon an in-depth exploration of the creative possibilities of the medium. The 'Neues Sehen' (New Vision) movement with its intense 'contemplation' of the immediate environment and the subjectivity associated with it form the core of Aenne Biermann’s photographic work. Tight framing, unconventional perspectives of people and things, focussed surfaces and high-contrast lighting characterise Biermann’s motifs and their richly detailed aesthetic. She found her subject matter in everyday life and exploited the possibilities of pictorial composition and the evolution of photographic techniques: the resulting groups of motifs include plants, rocks, portraits, still lifes, and children. Aenne Biermann’s photographs are all about gazing at the essence of things. Thus her plant photographs do not emphasise symmetrical pictorial composition or an analytical focus; on the contrary, they bear witness to her subjective gaze and the corresponding artistic effect of the subject matter. | | | | | | | | | Aenne Biermann
Cactus, before 1930
Gelatin silver print, 17,2 x 12,1 cm
Museum Folkwang, Essen | | | | | | During her lifetime, Aenne Biermann’s photographs were featured in all the important exhibitions of the period, including the touring exhibition Fotografie der Gegenwart from Essen as well as the ground-breaking international exhibition of the Deutscher Werkbund Film und Foto (FiFo) in 1929. Museum Folkwang owns an extensive collection of her photographic works. This exhibition, organised in cooperation with the Pinakothek der Moderne / Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, which possesses a similarly extensive collection of Biermann’s work thanks to the support of the Ann and Jürgen Wilde Foundation, allows visitors to experience the diverse but rigorous oeuvre of this unique photographer. The exhibition comprises 100 black-and-white photographs from the years 1925 to 1932 and extensive documentary material.
Aenne Biermann has been rediscovered in 1987 by Ute Eskildsen, former head of the Photography Department of Museum Folkwang, as part of an in-depth research project. Eskildsen reintroduced her to contemporary audiences with a dedicated exhibition; this is the first time that a retrospective has been dedicated to this renowned figure in avant-garde photography at Museum Folkwang, and also that such a major collection has been made accessible to the public.
In cooperation with the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Ann und Jürgen Wilde Foundation, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
Catalogue
Scheidegger & Spiess: Aenne Biermann. Fotografin.
Published by Simone Förster and Thomas Seelig.
184 pages, 140 images
ISBN 978-3-85881-673-3. Price: 38 € | | | | | | | | | Aenne Biermann
Self-Portrait, 1930–1931
Gelatin silver print, 17,6 x 23,4 cm
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