Fotografie der Gegenwart (Photography of the Present) was a photographic exhibition which was one of the most important between-the-wars photographic exhibitions, particularly for its inclusion of so many artists associated with the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

movements. The event was a Who's Who of

Mitteleuropa (), meaning Middle Europe, is one of the German terms for Central Europe. The term has acquired diverse cultural, political and historical connotations. University of Warsaw, Johnson, Lonnie (1996) ''Central Europe: Enemies, Neighbors, Friends'p ...

photography of the period. The show was organised and curated by the art historian . The exhibition Fotografie der Gegenwart was first shown from 20 January to 17 February 1929 at

Museum Folkwang Museum Folkwang is a major collection of 19th- and 20th-century art in Essen, Germany. The museum was established in 1922 by merging the Essener Kunstmuseum, which was founded in 1906, and the private Folkwang Museum of the collector and patr ...

in Essen and then at the Kestner-Gesellschaft in Hannover, 10 March 1929 – 17 April 1929; Galerie Neumann-Nierendorf in Berlin, 20 April 1929 – 20 May 1929; Lichthof des Neuen Rathauses in Dresden, 15 September 1929 – 6 October 1929; Ausstellungsgebäude am Adolf-Mittag-See,

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

, 28 November 1929 – 19 December 1929; and the

Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fir ...

in London in 1929 and later at five additional venues.

Stylistic influence

German designer

Walter Dexel Walter Dexel (born 7 February 1890 in Munich, died 8 June 1973 in Braunschweig) was a German painter, commercial graphic designer, and transportation planner. He also functioned as an art historian and directed a museum in Braunschweig during ...

(1890–1973) designed all the publicity material for the exhibition with

Paul Renner Paul Friedrich August Renner (9 August 1878 – 25 April 1956) was a German typeface designer, author, and founder of the Master School for Germany's Printers in Munich. In 1927, he designed the Futura typeface, which became one of the most ...

’s Futura font. The poster for the event in Magdeburg was produced using linocut.

Participants

Berenice Abbott Berenice Alice Abbott (July 17, 1898 – December 9, 1991) was an American photographer best known for her portraits of between-the-wars 20th century cultural figures, New York City photographs of architecture and urban design of the 1930s, and ...

, Paris *Carl Albiker, Berlin *

Eugène Atget Eugène Atget (; 12 February 1857 – 4 August 1927) was a French ''flâneur'' and a pioneer of documentary photography, noted for his determination to document all of the architecture and street scenes of Paris before their disappearance to mod ...

, Paris *

Herbert Bayer Herbert Bayer (April 5, 1900 – September 30, 1985) was an Austrian and American graphic designer, painter, photographer, sculptor, art director, environmental and interior designer, and architect. He was instrumental in the development of the ...

, Berlin *

Aenne Biermann Aenne Biermann (March 8, 1898 – January 14, 1933), born Anna Sibilla Sternfeld, was a German photographer of Ashkenazi origin. She was one of the major proponents of New Objectivity, a significant art movement that developed in Germany in the ...

, Gera *

Karl Blossfeldt Karl Blossfeldt (June 13, 1865December 9, 1932) was a German photographer and sculptor. He is best known for his close-up photographs of plants and living things, published in 1929 as ''Urformen der Kunst''. He was inspired, as was his father, b ...

, Berlin *Hilde Brinkmann-Schröder, Braunschweig * Mario von Bucovich, Berlin *

Max Burchartz Max Hubert Innocenz Maria Burchartz (1887–1961) was a German photographer. Life Max Burchartz was the son of a fabric manufacturer, Otto Burchartz and his wife Maria. After his basic schooling he received training in his father's weaving m ...

, Essen *Marliese Brunne, Berlin *Werner Cohnitz, Munich *Erich Comeriner, Berlin *Sammlung Raoul Corty, Vienna *

Wanda von Debschitz-Kunowski Wanda von Debschitz-Kunowski (née Wanda von Kunowski; 8 January 1870 – 23 April 1935) was a German portrait photographer based in Munich. Life Kunowski was born in Hammer, Kreis Czarnikau, province of Posen, she was the daughter of August ...

, Berlin *Willi Eidenbenz, Magdeburg *

Hugo Erfurth Hugo Erfurth (14 October 1874 – 14 February 1948) was a German photographer known for his portraits of celebrities and cultural figures of the early twentieth century. Life Early years Erfurth was born in Halle (Saale), in what was then t ...

, Dresden *

Andreas Feininger Andreas Bernhard Lyonel Feininger (December 27, 1906 – February 18, 1999) was an American photographer and a writer on photographic technique. He was noted for his dynamic black-and-white scenes of Manhattan and for studies of the structures ...

, Berlin *

T. Lux Feininger Theodore Lukas (alias T. Lux) Feininger (June 11, 1910 Berlin, Germany – July 7, 2011 Cambridge, Massachusetts) was a German-American painter, avant-garde photographer, author, and art teacher who was born in Berlin to , née Lilienfeld, and Ly ...

, Berlin *Hans Feidler, Dresden *, Halle *F. A. Flachslander, Berlin *Johann Graf, Magdeburg *, Hanover *

John Heartfield John Heartfield (born Helmut Herzfeld; 19 June 1891 – 26 April 1968) was a 20th century German visual artist who pioneered the use of art as a political weapon. Some of his most famous photomontages were anti-Nazi and anti-fascist statements ...

, Berlin *Elisabeth Heddenhausen, Berlin *Kurt Hergé, Naumburg *

Florence Henri Florence Henri (28 June 1893 – 24 July 1982) was a surrealist artist; primarily focusing her practice on photography and painting, in addition to pianist composition. In her childhood, she traveled throughout Europe, spending portions of her you ...

, Paris *, Görlitz *

Emil Otto Hoppé Emil or Emile may refer to: Literature *''Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau * ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life *''Emil and the Detective ...

, London *F. Kautz, Essen *

André Kertész André Kertész (; 2 July 1894 – 28 September 1985), born Andor Kertész, was a Hungarian-born photographer known for his groundbreaking contributions to photographic composition (visual arts), composition and the photo essay. In the early y ...

, Paris *Kleinschmidt, Magdeburg *Rudolf Kramer, Dresden *

Germaine Krull Germaine Luise Krull (20 November 1897 – 31 July 1985) was a photographer, political activist, and hotel owner.Sichel, Kim. ''Germaine Krull: Photographer of Modernity''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1999. . Her nationality has been catego ...

, Paris * and , Frankfurt *

Helmar Lerski Helmar Lerski (18 February 1871, in Strasbourg – 19 September 1956, in Zürich) was a photographer who laid some of the important foundations of modern photography. His works are on display in the USA, Germany, Israel and Switzerland. He focu ...

, Berlin *

Eli Lotar Eli Lotar (born Eliazar Lotar Teodorescu; January 30, 1905 – May 10, 1969) was a French photographer and cinematographer. Lotar was born in Paris, the son of Tudor Arghezi, a Romanian poet, and Constanța Zissu, a teacher. http://www.ziarul ...

, Berlin *Alb. Leon, Lutzel-Gelnhausen *

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 Surrealism, Surrealist movements, although his t ...

, Paris *Anton Meinholz, Essen *

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 i ...

and Lucia Moholy, Berlin *Aenne Mosbacher, Kassel * Oscar and Alice Nerlinger, Berlin * Heinz von Perckhammer, Berlin *

Walter Peterhans Walter Peterhans (12 June 1897 – 12 April 1960) was a German photographer best known as a teacher and course leader of photography at the Bauhaus from 1929 until 1933, and at the Reimann School in Berlin under Hugo Häring. In the 1930s Peterh ...

, Berlin *, Berlin *

Albert Renger-Patzsch Albert Renger-Patzsch (June 22, 1897 – September 27, 1966) was a German photographer associated with the New Objectivity. Biography Renger-Patzsch was born in Würzburg and began making photographs by age twelve. After military service in the F ...

, Berlin *Hans Richter (artist), Berlin *, Dresden * Frieda Gertrud Riess, Berlin *, Dresden *

August Sander August Sander (17 November 1876 – 20 April 1964) was a German portrait and documentary photographer. His first book ''Face of our Time'' (German: ''Antlitz der Zeit'') was published in 1929. Sander has been described as "the most important Ger ...

, Cologne *

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, pain ...

, Hanover * Gerty Simon, Berlin *

Sasha Stone Sasha Stone may refer to: * Sasha Stone (blogger) (born 1965), American blogger, founder of Awards Daily blog * Sasha Stone (photographer) (born 1940), Russian photographer See also * Sacha Stone Simon Jean Paul Sasha Adams (born 1966), know ...

and Cami Stone, Berlin *UMBO –

Otto Umbehr Umbo, born Otto Maximilian Umbehr (January 18, 1902 – May 13, 1980), was a German photojournalist and artist who had studied in the Bauhaus and worked as a photojournalist for the Wehrmacht in World War II. After the end of it, he had to endure ...

, Berlin *K.O. Vogelsang, Berlin *Vohleitner, Magdeburg *Friedrich Vordemberger-Gildewart, Hanover *, Berlin *, Munich *Dr Weller, Berlin *H. Windisch, Berlin *, Frankfurt am Main

References

{{Reflist

External links

Fotografie der Gegenwart – list of artists
artist-info.com Art exhibitions in Germany Photography exhibitions 1929 in Germany 1929 in art