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In Bremen, photographer Götz Diergarten’s first solo show in a museum is held, presenting his researches on everyday architectures. Shot according to strict conceptual outlines, his photographs show a nearly abstract compositional quality.
The NRW-Forum Düsseldorf poses a spectacular question: Did Stephen Shore inspire the well-known Becher School? The exhibition presents an extensive overview of the beginnings of the Düsseldorf photo school.
Finally, Jan Bannings “Bureaucratics” can now be seen in Iserlohn.

Götz Diergarten, o.T. (Lancing), Diptychon – links, 2003 © Götz Diergarten 2010

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Götz Diergarten – Photographs

21. August – 31. Oktober 2010

Weserburg | Museum für Moderne Kunst, Bremen

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Aus dem PR-Text: Götz Diergarten (*1972 in Mannheim) lenkt und sensibilisiert mit seinen Fotografien unseren Blick auf das Gewohnte unserer Umgebung. In seinen typologischen Serien untersucht er das Erscheinungsbild alltäglicher Architekturen: deutsche Fassaden, belgische Strandkabinen, britische Badearchitektur und europäische Untergrundbahnen. Die vordergründige Banalität von Putz- und Klinkerimitat, Fenstern, Garagentoren und einfachen Baukörpern verwandelt sich bei ihm in ihrer fotografischen Reihung zu einer Typologie der Alltagskultur.

Götz Diergarten, o.T. (London – Highbury & Islington), 2007 © Götz Diergarten 2010

Seine Werke sind geprägt vom klaren, dokumentarischen Stil der berühmten Becher Schule. Häuserfassaden, Strandhütten sowie U-Bahntunnel werden nach strengen bildnerischen Vorgaben aufgenommen: frontale Ansicht, diffuses Licht und enger Ausschnitt – lediglich der Typus variiert. [...]

Was Diergartens Originalität ausmacht, ist vor allem die konzeptuelle Verbindung von Typologie und Farbe. Seine selbstverständliche Praxis der Farbfotografie geht auch auf die US-amerikanische Tradition seit den 1970er-Jahren zurück, beispielsweise auf die beiläufigen Alltagserkundungen William Egglestons und Stephen Shores. Wer sich auf Diergartens Werke einlässt, sieht in ihnen keine banalen Fassaden oder Häuser mehr, sondern abstrakte Kompositionen, die in einer fein abgestuften Farbigkeit eine nahezu malerische Qualität gewinnen. Seine Fotografien setzen auf einen bewusst langsamen Wahrnehmungsvorgang und stehen damit ganz im Gegensatz zur grellbunten Bilderflut, die uns mit immer größerer Geschwindigkeit trifft. So kann man Götz Diergarten auch als Bewahrer einer großen fotografischen Tradition sehen.

Illus. (c) Götz Diergarten

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Stephen Shore Church Street and Second Street, Easton, Pennsylvania, June 20, 1974 © Stephen Shore, Courtesy 303 Gallery New York

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Der Rote Bulli

Stephen Shore und die Neue Düsseldorfer Fotografie

11. September 2010 – 16. Januar 2011

NRW-Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft, Düsseldorf

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PR-Text: Stephen Shore als der US-amerikanische Inspirator der berühmten deutschen Becher-Klasse?

Mit dieser spektakulären These untersucht die Ausstellung “Stephen Shore und die Neue Düsseldorfer Fotografie” des NRW-Forum Düsseldorf erstmals ein bedeutendes Kapitel der jüngeren Fotogeschichte: Den transatlantischen Einfluß auf die Fotografie der 1970er und 80er Jahre. Ihr Kern markiert eine Künstlerfreundschaft, die im Jahre 1973 in New York ihren Anfang nimmt. In der US-Metropole lernt der 26jährige Stephen Shore die Düsseldorfer Fotografin Hilla Becher kennen, deren typologische Bilddokumentation von Wassertürmen, die sie gemeinsam mit ihrem Ehemann Bernd Becher erstellt hat, im Vorjahr in der renommierten Galerie von Ileana Sonnabend gezeigt wurde. Zwei Jahre danach werden Stephen Shore (als einziger Farbfotograf) und das Ehepaar Becher (als einzige europäische Position) in der legendären Gruppenausstellung New Topographics präsentiert. So erkundet die Ausstellung die Frage, wie die von Bernd Becher geleitete Fotoklasse an der Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie, deren erste Generation später Weltruhm erlangt, sich von US-amerikanischen Sujets und Bildkonzepten der 1970/80er Jahre inspirieren ließ. In Konfrontation mit dem fotografischen Werk von Stephen Shore werden die transatlantischen Einflüsse auf die Becherklasse kaleidoskopartig präsentiert. Die Ausstellung zeigt umfassend in frühen Arbeiten die Entstehung der Neuen Düsseldorfer Fotografie.

Teilnehmende Künstler:

Stephen Shore, Bernd und Hilla Becher, Thomas Struth, Axel Hütte, Tata Ronkholz, Miles Coolidge, Martin Rosswog, Thomas Ruff, Candida Höfer, Claus Goedicke, Simone Nieweg, Stefan Schneider, Kris Scholz, Wendelin Bottländer, Elger Esser, Andreas Gursky, Boris Becker, Bernhard Fuchs, Laurenz Berges, Andi Brenner, Volker Döhne, Claudia Fährenkemper, Matthias Koch

Illus.: courtesy NRW-Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft

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© Jan Banning. Yemen, 2008

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Jan Banning Bureaucratics

10. September – 24. Oktober 2010

Städtische Galerie Iserlohn

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Mehr Info

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Two hints for those of you living or travelling South America, Brazil or Argentina in particular: young Brazilian photojournalist Tuca Vieria, who told as more about his work in a detailed interview a little while ago, shows his work in São Paulo, while in Buenos Aires, the Fundación Proa presents “Urban Spaces” – photographed by “the” German urbanity photographers of the Düsseldorf school.

Tuca Vieira, Viaduto Santa Ifigênia © T. Vieira

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Tuca Vieira

Fotojournalismo

29. June – 29. Juli 2009

Instituto Carrefour

Rua Paul Valery, 255

São Paulo, Brazil

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URBAN SPACES

Andreas Gursky | Candida Höfer | Axel Hütte | Thomas Ruff | Thomas Struth

From May 30^th until the end of July 2009

Fundación PROA, Bueonas Aires

Illustrations © Fundación Proa + Photographers

Andreas Gursky Tote Hosen, 2000

(quoted from Proa’s PR statement, abridged)

The show analyzes the evolution on the concept of the city in contemporary culture through the ideas and images produced by the artists of the so called Düsseldorf School of Photography: Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Thomas Ruff and Thomas Struth.

Axel Hütte Minneapolis, Missisispi, 2006

The exhibition presents 45 works produced from the early eighties until recent times. It is designed to take the visitor first through the artists’ early works, produced during their formative years, to their most recent body of work, in which an individual selection from each artist emphasizes their stylistic differences and personal characteristics.

The selection of the works is the result of the continuous dialogue between the artists and the curator and depicts the different interpretations and relation each artist has with the urban space. This is the first time Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Thomas Ruff and Thomas Struth are joined in an exhibition under a common theme – the city – yet with various interpretations.

The exhibition will present works, such as May Day IV, by Andreas Gursky, or Candida Höfer´s Buenos Aires series. Also, less known works that exemplify the artists formation under the wing of Bernd Becher, photography teacher at the Dusseldorf School of Photography, can be appreciated.

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The photographers: Bernd + Hilla Becher’s Düsseldorf School

Thomas Ruff m.d.p.n. 06, 2002

The influence of the artists on the global artistic context is due to the overhaul their works produced on the tradition of the concept and language of photography, not only through the scale of the images in their monumental format, but also through the conceptual treatment they present. Each piece recreates a unique and defined universe that concentrates in the interrelation that exists between man and his surroundings together with all its anthropological and sociocultural implications.

During the 1980s, their teachers Bernd and Hilla Becher, conveyed the city theme as an important artistic reference. Subsequently each one of them developed a unique and personal style, following the drastic changes caused by the rapid globalization of urban cultures. Their images depicting different sites around the world, combine the local details with the usual feelings and experiences of contemporary societies. The Dusseldorf School became a reference within the art and photography scene.

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Thomas Struth Cerro Morro Solar, Perú, 2003

The exhibition catalogue

In the exhibition catalogue, a bilingual publication (Spanish – English) of 200 pages, each artist counts with a special section that includes an unpublished interview, a biography and the exhibited works. The catalogue also includes critical essays by curator Pratesi and art critics such as Armin Zweite and Pablo Perulli -published in Spanish for the first time-, and Valeria González.

Are you looking for a spontaneous getaway and have no idea where to go? Why not to Portugal –

in November, there is a photography show at Guimarães presenting new works by Inês d’Orey, a young Portuguese photographer I introduced you a while ago.

Volver
Escola de Arquitectura

Universidade do Minho

Guimarães

31.10.2008 – 30.11.2008

More information here

The exhibition VOLVER presents works that portray the architecture school’s new building by Fernando Távora and Jose Bernardo Távora:

(about the architecture school)

DAA (Departamento de Arquitectura) used to operate in temporary facilities at the University campus in Azurém, Guimarães. In September 2004, it moved to the School of Architecture building, designed by the architects F. Távora and J.B. Távora, facing the new buildings of the School of Sciences and School of Engineering. Manuel Fernandes described the edifice as a “long straight corridor, forming a long and elegant body … it systematically distributes all the successive internal spaces that cross it. These are, namely: the lounge spaces, access to the external yard, lecture theatres, library, administrative area and, finally, access to another long wing of the building. Together with the first corridor-body, it forms an L shape and is the location for the offices, laboratories and classrooms. [...] The unique view to the secular and symbolic castle is the constant ‘Leitmotiv’ in these classrooms…”

(original quote here)

(The following info are citations from the exhibition profile – as I don’t know Portuguese, it’s just a rough translation of the most important thoughts that I could make out).

Shot between July and August 2008 – i.e. during summer holidays -, d’Orey’s photographs document the empty, silent rooms. The atmospheric pictures poses questions like: What does a library without books make a library? Is a garage without cars still a garage? Can we still call it “library” or “garage”?

There’s nothing in these photographs that allows us to call the portrayed building a School of Architecture.

The way d’Orey reduces architecture to form reminds of Bernd and Hilla Becher. Yet unlike the Bechers, her pictures don’t legitimate themselves from a pretended objectivity and neutrality, but she uses the means of her medium to dramatize space.