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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, by nature and the ways in which plants grow. He believed that "the plant must be valued as a totally artistic and architectural structure."
Among his contacts at the Berlin Arts and Crafts School was Heinz Warneke. From 1923, he was professor at the ''Vereinigte Staatsschulen für Freie und Angewandte Kunst'' (United State Schools for Fine and Applied Art) in Berlin, Germany. He died aged 67.
Karl Blossfeldt worked in Berlin, Germany
Website Karl-Blossfeldt-Archiv
The Portfolio
Blossfeldt's Urformen der Kunst
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blossfeldt, Karl 1865 births 1932 deaths Botanical illustrators Modern sculptors 19th-century German photographers 19th-century German sculptors 19th-century German male artists German male sculptors 20th-century German sculptors 20th-century German male artists Photographers from Berlin
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, by nature and the ways in which plants grow. He believed that "the plant must be valued as a totally artistic and architectural structure."
Among his contacts at the Berlin Arts and Crafts School was Heinz Warneke. From 1923, he was professor at the ''Vereinigte Staatsschulen für Freie und Angewandte Kunst'' (United State Schools for Fine and Applied Art) in Berlin, Germany. He died aged 67.
Biography
Blossfeldt never received formal training on the subject of photography but apprenticed in Rome under Moritz Meurer, (1839–1916), a decorative artist and professor of ornament and design, from 1890 to 1896. Appointed for a teaching post at the Institute of Royal Arts Museum in 1898 (where he remained until 1931), he established an archive for his photographs. Blossfeldt developed a series of home-made cameras that allowed him to photograph plant surfaces in unprecedented, magnified detail. This reflected his enduring interest in the repetitive patterns found in nature's textures and forms.
Karl Blossfeldt worked in Berlin, Germany
Life and legacy
In Berlin from the late nineteenth century until his death, Blossfeldt's works were primarily used as teaching tools and were brought to public attention in 1929 by his first publication ''Urformen der Kunst'' (Art Forms in Nature). Published in 1929 when Blossfeldt was 63 and a professor of applied art at the Vereinigte Staatsschulen für freie und angewandte Kunst, ''Urformen der Kunst'' quickly became an international bestseller and in turn, made Blossfeldt famous almost overnight. The abstract shapes and structures in nature that he revealed impressed his contemporaries. Swiftly regarded as a seminal book on photography, Blossfeldt's objective and finely detailed imagery was praised byWalter Benjamin
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist.
An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish mys ...
, who declared that Blossfeldt "has played his part in that great examination of the inventory of perception, which will have an unforeseeable effect on our conception of the world". He compared him to Moholy-Nagy and the pioneers of New Objectivity
The New Objectivity (in german: Neue Sachlichkeit) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle'' in Mannheim, who ...
, and ranked his achievements alongside the great photographers 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 ...
and Eugène Atget. The Surrealists
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
also championed him, and Georges Bataille included his images in the periodical ''Documents'' in 1929.
The publication of his working collages in 2001 threw into question the legitimacy of his association with New Objectivity
The New Objectivity (in german: Neue Sachlichkeit) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle'' in Mannheim, who ...
, as his methods were shown to differ from those of other artists in the movement.
In 2001 ''Urformen der Kunst'' was included in "The Book of 101 Books" as one of the seminal photographic books of the twentieth century.
See also
* Wilson "Snowflake" BentleyReferences
External links
Website Karl-Blossfeldt-Archiv
The Portfolio
Blossfeldt's Urformen der Kunst
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blossfeldt, Karl 1865 births 1932 deaths Botanical illustrators Modern sculptors 19th-century German photographers 19th-century German sculptors 19th-century German male artists German male sculptors 20th-century German sculptors 20th-century German male artists Photographers from Berlin