Angelika Platen (* 19 February 1942 in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

) is a German photographer known internationally for her portraits of artists.

Life and work

Angelika Platen studied art history, Romance studies and Oriental studies at the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

. followed by photography at the

University of Fine Arts of Hamburg The ''Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg (HFBK Hamburg)'' is the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg. It dates to 1767, when it was called the ''Hamburger Gewerbeschule''; later it became known as ''Landeskunstschule Hamburg''. The main build ...

Zwei im Spiegel, Sigmar Polke und Angelika Platen, fotografiert von Angelika Platen, Willich 1972

In 1968 she began working as a

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographers As in other ...

and photojournalist. In 1969 she exhibited her photographs for the first time at the gallery Die Insel under the title Künstler sind auch nur Menschen. From 1970 to 1972 she worked as a journalist for the business section "Kunst als Ware" of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit. Her first marriage was to essayist, reporter and writer Karl Günter Simon, with whom she had two daughters. From 1972 to 1975 she ran the

Gunter Sachs Fritz Gunter Sachs (14 November 1932 – 7 May 2011, also Gunter Sachs von Opel) was a German photographer, author, Rosenberg student, industrialist, and latterly head of an institute that researched claims of astrology. As a young man he bec ...

Gallery on Milchstrasse in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. During this period she produced hundreds of photographic portraits of young artists at the beginning of their careers, some of whom are now world-famous. Her pieces show the painters, sculptors, conceptual and object artists in their respective artistic contexts: she photographs them both in their characteristic ambience and in unusual settings. At the end of the 1970s the photographer moved to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, where she worked as head of the public relations department in an IT company. She married again and had a third daughter. In 1997, she resumed her photographic studies, with Phase II of her photographic activity commencing without a break in style. Her partner of many years, the cultural journalist and publicist Günter Engelhard, editor of her books and author of many texts about her, created poetic picture titles for her photographs. Angelika Platen has photographed a considerable amount of contemporary artists, including in Phase I, Georg Baselitz,

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

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Hanne Darboven Hanne Darboven (29 April 1941 – 9 March 2009) was a German conceptual artist, best known for her large-scale minimalist installations consisting of handwritten tables of numbers. Early life and career Darboven was born in 1941 in Munich. She g ...

, Walter de Maria,

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, Blinky Palermo,

Sigmar Polke Sigmar Polke (13 February 1941 – 10 June 2010) was a German painter and photographer. Polke experimented with a wide range of styles, subject matters and materials. In the 1970s, he concentrated on photography, returning to paint in the 1980s ...

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, Günther Uecker and

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

. In Phase II, she photographed

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Neo Rauch Neo Rauch (born 18 April 1960, in Leipzig, East Germany; ) is a German artist whose paintings mine the intersection of his personal history with the politics of industrial alienation. His work reflects the influence of socialist realism, and owes ...

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and Thomas Struth, among others. She later photographed for a second time some of the earlier newcomers she had first portrayed in the 1960s and 1970s. These portraits take another look at the established artists who had meanwhile come of age. On the occasion of the 1998 exhibition Angelika Platen - Photo Works, the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt am Main acquired a collection of the photographs taken between 1968 and 1974. Further exhibitions at well-known institutions were to follow, including the

Martin-Gropius-Bau Martin-Gropius-Bau, commonly known as Gropius Bau, is an important exhibition building in Berlin, Germany. Originally a museum of applied arts, the building has been a listed historical monument since 1966. It is located at 7 Niederkirchnerstra� ...

, the Haus am Lützowplatz, Willy-Brand-Haus and the Institut-Francais in Berlin. Platen’s portraits have been exhibited at the Goethe Institutes in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

and

. At th
Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst
her portraits were put in dialogue with documents by the collector Egidio Marzona. The conceptual photographs of the 1960s and 1970s were shown in the driving exhibition of the collector Axel Haubrok. Verblühende Zeit, Hanne Darboven fotografiert von Angelika Platen, Hamburg 2002

Verblühende Zeit, Hanne Darboven fotografiert von Angelika Platen, Hamburg 2002

In addition to her work as a photographer, Platen collects portraits of artists by other photographers. Her collection begins "on the threshold of the turn of the 20th century" with photographs by Berenice Abbot (Eugène Atget),

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to eac ...

(

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

) all the way to Robert Mapplethorpe's and Duane Michal's portraits of

. In 2018, she presented 180 photographs from her collection of over 700 artist portraits, including

Robert Capa Robert Capa (born Endre Ernő Friedmann; October 22, 1913 – May 25, 1954) was a Hungarian-American war photographer and photojournalist as well as the companion and professional partner of photographer Gerda Taro. He is considered by some t ...

Henri Cartier-Bresson Henri Cartier-Bresson (; 22 August 1908 – 3 August 2004) was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as cap ...

Robert Doisneau Robert Doisneau (; 14 April 1912 – 1 April 1994) was a French photographer. From the 1930s, he photographed the streets of Paris. He was a champion of humanist photography and with Henri Cartier-Bresson a pioneer of photojournalism. Dois ...

and Germaine Krull, to the public for the first time in the exhibition Künstler Komplex (Artist Complex) at the Museum für Fotografie (Berlin). Angelika Platen is "an outstanding artist portraitist", wrote Andreas Kilb in the FAZ in 2018:

's 2002 photograph is "one of the masterpieces of the genre because it turns the celebrity into a human view". The photo, titled Verblühende Zeit, shows the sixty-year-old artist smoking next to flowering

orchids Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

. "This photograph is significant because it continues a tradition in Western art history that began in the Renaissance, and at the same time transforms it." Ludger Derenthal and Joachim Brand write of Platen: "As an artist portraitist, she has shaped the public perception of artists for many years, and her collection of portraits can be seen as a self-assurance of the foundations of her own work." Platen's work is well documented in various illustrated books and has been shown at numerous exhibitions.

Solo exhibitions in museums and institutions

* 1998:

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, Frankfurt am Main, photographic works * 2001:

, Berlin, Platen Artists; Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, artist photographs * 2002: Hallescher Kunstverein, Halle * 2002: Goethe Institute, Paris * 2003: Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, Platen Artists * 2003: Goethe-Institut, Washington D.C. * 2004: Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna * 2005
Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin, Platen Artists
re
Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin
/ref> * 2007: Gallery of the Capital, Prague * 2008: National Museums in Berlin, Art Library (together with Hans Namuth, Lothar Wolleh, and Andrea Stappert), Immortal! The Photo of the Artist * 2011: Umweltakzente, Monschau, photographer of the artists Angelika Platen * 2013: Muzeul Național de Artă Contemporană, Bucharest, Please, no photos * 2015
Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst, Delmenhorst, Spurenlese
* 2017: Willy-Brandt-Haus Berlin, Künstlern auf der Spur. Portraits 1968-2008; Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin, dialog.digital.analog. * 2018: Institut français, Berlin, FEMMES ARTISTES. * 2022: Fahrbereitschaft, Berlin, Angelika Platen: Sequences. Conceptual Photography

Solo exhibitions in galleries

* 1998: Gallery Renate Schröder, Cologne Platen Artists * 1999: Gallery Artiscope, Brussels * 2005: Gallery Hohenthal and Bergen, Berlin, Sigmar Polke - In the middle of the air * 2006: Gallery Jean Brolly, Paris, no photos please * 2006: Gallery Bernd Slutzky Polke, Richter, Palermo, photographic works 1971-1972 * 2007: Gallery Haas AG, Zurich, Platen Artists * 2017: Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin, dialog.digital.analog * 2018: Gallery Michael Schultz, Berlin, Indescribably female * 2019: VON&VON Gallery, Nuremberg, Meet your Artist. Artist Portraits * 2022: Gallery Michael Haas, Berlin, Dialogue * 2022: VON&VON Gallery, Nuremberg, My Women

Works in public collections

Berlinische Galerie The Berlinische Galerie is a museum of modern art, photography and architecture in Berlin. It is located in Kreuzberg, on Alte Jakobstraße, not far from the Jewish Museum. History The Berlinische Galerie was founded in 1975

; DZ Bank Kunstsammlung, Frankfurt;

Fries Museum The Fries Museum (Frisian Museum) is a museum in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. It has won the Global Fine Art Award which is sometimes nicknamed the Museum-Oscar. History (1881-2012) The museum was founded on 13 April 1881 by the "''Provincial Friesch ...

, Leeuwarden, Netherlands;

Kunsthalle Hamburg The Hamburger Kunsthalle is the art museum of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany. It is one of the largest art museums in the country. The museum consists of three connected buildings, dating from 1869 (main building), 1921 (Kuppelsaa ...

;

Hessisches Landesmuseum Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt (HLMD) is a large multidisciplinary museum in Darmstadt, Germany. The museum exhibits Rembrandt, Beuys, a primeval horse and a mastodon under the slogan "The whole world under one roof". As one of the oldest pub ...

; Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg; mumok - Museum moderner Kunst, Stiftung Ludwig Wien; Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main; Museum Kunstpalast, AFORK, Düsseldorf; Museum Schloss Moyland, Kleve; Sammlung Erika Hoffmann, Berlin; Sammlung Fotografie Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen, Berlin; Sammlung Lothar Schirmer, Munich; Stiftung Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf.

Literature (selection)

* Angelika Platen, Platen artists. Photography, with texts by Klaus Honnef, Günter Engelhard, Axel Hecht and others, Edition Stemmle: Kilchberg 1998, ISBN 3-908161-55-X. * Angelika Platen, Sigmar Polke - Mitten in der Luft, with a text by Günter Engelhard, Klein, Bad Münstereifel 2003. * Immortal! The Artist's Photograph, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-88609-656-5. * Günter Engelhard (ed.), Angelika Platen Künstler, Artists, with texts by Christina Weiss, Thomas Hettche and Heinz Peter Schwerfel, Hatje Cantz: Ostfildern 2010, ISBN 978-3-7757-2653-5. * Marek Keller, Portrait Photos of Angelika Platen: Abtauchen, Auftauchen, Klick,, Spiegel Online, 14 September 2010. * Christiane Meixner, Besuch mich doch mal im Studio, Der Tagesspiegel, 21 November 2010. * Spurenlese - Artists' portraits photographed by Angelika Platen. Dokumente aus dem Archiv Marzona, Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst, Delmenhorst 2015, ISBN 978-3-944683-13- * Jürgen Schilling (text), dialog.digital.analog, exhibition catalogue, Galerie Michael Schulz, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-946879-00-8. * Artist Complex. Photographic Portraits from Baselitz to Warhol. Sammlung Platen, exhibition catalogue, for the Kunstbibliothek Staatliche Museen zu Berlin edited by Ludger Derenthal and Jadwiga Kamola, Kehrer Verlag: Heidelberg, Berlin 2018. * Andreas Kilb, Dem Vergessen bei der Arbeit zuschauen. Views and counter-views of geniuses and their thoughts: Berlin's Museum für Fotografie presents portraits of great artists from Angelika Platen's collection, in: FAZ, 2 July 2018, online. * Elke Buhr, Portfolio. Angelika Platen. Künstlerinnen, in: Monopol (magazine), October 2018, last accessed 18 May 2022. * Elke Buhr, Angelika Platen's Portraits. Changed focus, in: Monopol, 10 May 2021, last accessed 18 May 2022. * Angelika Platen. Meine Frauen, with texts by Swantje Karich and an interview with Julia Voss, Hatje Cantz: Berlin 2021, ISBN 978-3-7757-4881-0. * Freddy Langer, Photographer Angelika Platen. The Art of Seduction, in: FAZ, 19 February 2022, online * Portfolio Angelika Platen. Meine Frauen, in: brennpunkt 3/2022, pp. 56–71.

External links

Website of the artist

* ttps://www.kettererkunst.de/bio/angelika-platen-1942.php Angelika Platen at Ketterer Art
For all exhibitions by Angelika Platen
see: www.photography-now.com/artist/angelika-platen * Interview on YouTube, Photo Chat #9 with Angelika Platen, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4O9QJIyhz Individual references
Angelika Platen, Inventory, in: Künstler Komplex. Photographic Portraits from Baselitz to Warhol. Platen Collection
supplement to the exhibition catalogue, Museum für Fotografie (Berlin), 2018. * Künstler Komplex. Photographic Portraits from Baselitz to Warhol. Platen Collection, exhibition catalogue, for the Kunstbibliothek Staatliche Museen zu Berlin edited by Ludger Derenthal and Jadwiga Kamola, Kehrer Verlag: Heidelberg, Berlin 2018. * The exhibition "Künstler Komplex" in the archive of the Museum für Fotografie Berlin.

Views and counter-views of geniuses and their thoughts: the Berlin Museum of Photography presents portraits of great artists from Angelika Platen's collection, in: FAZ, 2 July 2018. * Joachim Brand and Ludger Derenthal, Preface, in: Künstler Komplex. Photographic Portraits from Baselitz to Warhol. Sammlung Platen, exhibition catalogue, for the Kunstbibliothek Staatliche Museen zu Berlin edited by Ludger Derenthal and Jadwiga Kamola, Kehrer Verlag: Heidelberg, Berlin 2018, p. 11.
Website Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin

References

__FORCETOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Platen, Angelika Living people German women photographers 1942 births