Edmund Kesting (27 July 1892, in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

– 21 October 1970, in

Birkenwerder Birkenwerder is a municipality in the Oberhavel district, in Brandenburg, Germany. Geography Birkenwerder is situated in the south of Oberhavel. The northern border of Berlin is 3 kilometres away. Birkenwerder shares his border with Oranienburg ...

) was a German

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 oth ...

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

and art professor. He studied until 1916 at the

Dresden Academy of Fine Arts The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (German ''Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden''), often abbreviated HfBK Dresden or simply HfBK, is a vocational university of visual arts located in Dresden, Germany. The present institution is the produc ...

before participating as a soldier in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, upon returning his painting teachers were Richard Müller and

Otto Gussmann Otto Friedrich Gussmann (22 May 1869, Wachbach, Main-Tauber-Kreis - 27 July 1926, Dresden) was a German decorative artist, designer, and art professor. Biography His father was a pastor. After completing secondary school, he began an apprent ...

and in 1919 he began to teach as a professor at the private school ''Der Weg''. In 1923 he had his first exposition in the gallery ''Der Sturm'' in which he showed

photogram A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a light-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. The usual result is a negative shadow image th ...

s. When ''Der Weg'' opened a new academy in Berlin in 1927, he moved to the capital. He formed relations with other vanguardists in Berlin and practiced various experimental techniques such as

solarization The Sabatier effect, also known as pseudo-solarization (or pseudo-solarisation) and erroneously referred to as the Sabattier effect, is a phenomenon in photography in which the image recorded on a negative or on a photographic print is wholly o ...

, multiple images and photograms, for which reason twelve of his works were considered

degenerate art Degenerate art (german: Entartete Kunst was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, German modernist art, including many works of internationally renowned artists, ...

by the Nazi regime and were prohibited. Among the artists with whom he interacted are

Kurt Schwitters Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, constructivism, surrealism, poetry, sound, paint ...

László Moholy-Nagy László Moholy-Nagy (; ; born László Weisz; July 20, 1895 – November 24, 1946) was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as a professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the ...

El Lissitzky Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...

and

Alexander Archipenko Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko (also referred to as Olexandr, Oleksandr, or Aleksandr; uk, Олександр Порфирович Архипенко, Romanized: Olexandr Porfyrovych Arkhypenko; February 25, 1964) was a Ukrainian and American ...

. At the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

he formed part of a Dresden artistic group known as ''Künstlergruppe der ruf - befreite Kunst (Call to an art in freedom)'' along with

Karl von Appen Karl von Appen (12 May 1900, Düsseldorf - 22 August 1981, Berlin) was a German stage designer and member of the Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists. Theatre * 1954: ''The Caucasian Chalk Circle'' by Bertolt Brecht; directed by Brecht at ...

, Helmut Schmidt-Kirstein and Christoph Hans, among others. In this city he made an experimental report named ''Dresdner Totentanz (Dance of death in Dresden)'' as a condemnation of the bombing of the city. In 1946 he was named a member of the Academy of Art in the city. He participated in the controversy between

socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...

and

formalism Formalism may refer to: * Form (disambiguation) * Formal (disambiguation) * Legal formalism, legal positivist view that the substantive justice of a law is a question for the legislature rather than the judiciary * Formalism (linguistics) * Scien ...

that took place in the

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **G ...

, therefore his work was not realist and could not be shown in the country between 1949 and 1959. In 1955 he began to experiment with chemical painting, making photographs without the use of a camera and only with the use of chemical products such as the

developer Developer may refer to: Computers *Software developer, a person or organization who develop programs/applications * Video game developer, a person or business involved in video game development, the process of designing and creating games * Web de ...

and the fixer and

photographic paper Photographic paper is a paper coated with a light-sensitive chemical formula, like photographic film, used for making photographic prints. When photographic paper is exposed to light, it captures a latent image that is then developed to form a ...

, for which he made exposures to light using masks and templates. Between 1956 and 1967 he was a professor at the Academy of Cinema and Television of

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of ...

. His artistic work was not recognized by the authorities of the German Democratic Republic until 1980, ten years after his death.

References

External links

Literature by Edmund Kesting
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kesting, Edmund 1892 births 1970 deaths Dresden Academy of Fine Arts faculty East German photographers