Lothar Wolleh (January 20, 1930 – September 28, 1979) was a well-known German photographer. Until the end of the sixties, Lothar Wolleh worked as a commercial photographer. He made portraits of international contemporary painters, sculptors and

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

ists. Altogether, he photographed around 109 artists, including known personalities such as 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 ...

Dieter Roth Dieter Roth (April 21, 1930 – June 5, 1998) was a Swiss artist best known for his artist's books, editioned prints, sculptures, and works made of found materials, including rotting food stuffs. He was also known as Dieter Rot and Diter Rot. ...

Jean Tinguely Jean Tinguely (22 May 1925 – 30 August 1991) was a Swiss sculptor best known for his kinetic art sculptural machines (known officially as Métamatics) that extended the Dada tradition into the later part of the 20th century. Tinguely's art ...

René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature and bound ...

, Günther Uecker,

Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, and also photographs and glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary Germa ...

, Edward Kienholz, Otto Piene,

Niki de Saint Phalle Niki de Saint Phalle (; born Catherine Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle; 29 October 193021 May 2002) was a French-American sculptor, painter, filmmaker, and author of colorful hand-illustrated books. Widely noted as one of the few female monume ...

, and

Christo Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, often large landmarks and ...

Life

Lothar Wolleh was born in Berlin-Wedding, the first of four sons of the unmarried worker Else Martha Wolleh. He spent the World War II years in Berlin, suffering the heavy Allied bombing campaign that finished the long struggle. The death of his uncle's family as well as his participation "in the last squad" during the final battle for Berlin in April and May 1945 left deep psychological scars. In the grim, post-war years from 1946 to 1947, he studied "concrete painting" in the elementary school class at the ''Hochschule für angewandte Kunst'' ("University of applied arts") in Berlin-Weißensee. From December 1947 to October 1949, he lived in “Boys Town” in Bad Vilbel, in a camp run by the US Army for uprooted young Germans, based on the model of Father

Edward J. Flanagan Edward Joseph Flanagan (13 July 1886 – 15 May 1948) was an Irish-born priest of the Catholic Church in the United States, who served for decades in Nebraska. After serving as a parish priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Omaha, Catholic ...

. A few months after his return to Berlin in July 1950, he was arrested by the Soviet occupying forces and sentenced by a special court "OSO" (remote judgement from Moscow) to 15 years in a forced labor camp, for alleged espionage and diversion under Articles 58.6 and 58.9 of the USSR. For the next six years, Wolleh was confined in the GULAG labor camp

Vorkutlag The Vorkuta Corrective Labor Camp (), commonly known as the Vorkuta Gulag or Vorkutlag (Воркутлаг), was a major GULAG labor camp of the Soviet Union located in Vorkuta from 1932 to 1962. The Vorkuta Gulag was one of the largest camps in ...

in the USSR, where he did forced labor in a coal mine. Wolleh was able to return to Berlin in 1956, after

Konrad Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (; 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman who served as the first chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Dem ...

's successful negotiations for the return of German prisoners of war. Torture after his arrest, and the long hard detention and working conditions in coal mining, left behind physical damage and post-traumatic disorders. However, the GULAG labor camp Vorkutlag allowed Wolleh's first contact with photography and his mythical worship of light. After his return from exile, from 1956 to 1957 Wolleh resumed his education in the Lette-Verein, a continuation school for photography, design, and fashion in Berlin. He took part in a regular monthly recovery program of the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most ju ...

for war-damaged youth. This program made it possible for him to visit the Swedish island of Gotland in 1958, which was an inspiration for his lifelong strong affinity towards Sweden, its culture, landscape, and people. From 1962 until his death he lived and worked in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

as a freelance photographer. Initially, he worked primarily in advertising, but later focused on his artistic work. In 1964 he married his wife Karin. His son Oliver was born in 1965, and his daughter Anouchka in 1966. In 1979 Lothar Wolleh died after an

asthma Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, co ...

attack in London, shortly after he had photographed Henry Moore. His grave is on Gotland in Sweden.

Work

As a freelancer for the advertising agency TEAM, which also included Helmut Newton, Wolleh became one of the most famous and expensive fashion, advertising, and portrait photographers in the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

during the 1960s. His clients included well-known companies such as the

Deutsche Bundesbahn The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB (German Federal Railway) was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on 7 September 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG). The DB remaine ...

Tchibo Tchibo is a German chain of coffee retailers and cafés known for its range of non-coffee products that change weekly. The latter includes: clothing, furniture, household items, electronics and electrical appliances. In Germany, Tchibo's slogan i ...

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post-W ...

. In 1965 he portrayed Chancellor Ludwig Erhard in his campaign for the general election. In the years 1962 to 1965, Wolleh photographed the ground-breaking

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and ...

in Rome. With the help of Father Emil Schmitz SJ, Wolleh's first photo book ''Das Konzil, II Vatikanisches Konzil'' was published in 1965 by Belser. In 1975, he photographed the

Jubilee A jubilee is a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term is often now used to denote the celebrations associated with the reign of a monarch after a milestone number of y ...

celebration, and published the photographic folio ''Apostolorum Limina''. This work, with its blurring, represented a radical evolution of Wolleh´s color photography, as hinted by his first book. In 1969, Wolleh traveled for several months through the Soviet Union. The photographs taken on this journey found their way into the 1970 illustrated book ''USSR - The Soviet State and its People'', which he published together with

Heinrich Böll Heinrich Theodor Böll (; 21 December 1917 – 16 July 1985) was a German writer. Considered one of Germany's foremost post-World War II writers, Böll is a recipient of the Georg Büchner Prize (1967) and the Nobel Prize for Literature (1972). ...

and Valentin Katajew with Belser publisher. In the late 1960s, at the request of his friend the German painter Günther Uecker, Wolleh began to systematically portray more than one hundred international well-known painters, sculptors, and Actionists. From the 1970s, Wolleh did relatively little work as a commercial photographer, devoting himself almost exclusively to his series of artist portraits, in which he initially photographed the well-known artists of the Düsseldorf scene, including Heinz Mack, Otto Piene,

, and

. Soon however, his project expanded beyond the borders of the Rhineland to the whole of Europe, focusing on the

Zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation such as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, 0 also serves as a placeholder numerical digit, which works by multiplying digits to the left of 0 by the radix, usual ...

group, and Nouveau Réalisme, with members such as

and

. Out of this project several comprehensive photobook-projects evolved: *1970- ''UdSSR'' (''USSR'') *1972- ''Art Scene Düsseldorf'' *1972- ''Apostolorum Limina'' *1973- ''Das Unterwasserbuch'' (''The Underwater Book'', together with

) Several book and art portfolio projects remained unfinished, so a volume to Lucio Fontana, Jan Schoonhoven, The illustrated book "Men of Management", in which company founders and managers of the leading German companies were portrayed, was not to be released because of feared attacks by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

faction. Another project was ''Das Unterwasserbuch'', which Beuys and Wolleh had planned together; he created 51 format-filling pictures for the book. The photographs were taken during the construction of the Beuys exhibition at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 1971. In his final years between 1977 and 1979, Wolleh had several stays in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. At his death, the unfinished photo volumes ''The Black Madonna of Czestochowa'' and ''Wawel Castle'' were still underway. Posthumously, numerous portraits of the Polish avant-garde have emerged.

Legacy

Wolleh's photograph of

and his wife is said to have inspired singer-songwriter Paul Simon to compose the

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

" Rene And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War". In his work, Lothar Wolleh pursued idiosyncratic creative principles that gave his portraits an unmistakable signature. His works are precisely designed and staged through a clear, often strictly symmetrical image structure. The portrayed persons are usually placed as a whole figure on the vertical central axis in the upper half of the picture. Often the camera is on the ground or near the ground, so that the foreground occupies almost the entire lower half of the picture, establishing a base with a clear horizon line dividing the image area. Characteristicly, he used black and white photography, in the context of a basically square format. In total, Lothar Wolleh is known to have portrayed 109 artists. In 2007, the comprehensive retrospective ''Lothar Wolleh – Eine Wiederentdeckung: Fotografien 1959 bis 1979 (Lothar Wolleh - A Rediscovery: Photographs 1959 to 1979)'' was shown in Germany at

Kunsthalle Bremen The Kunsthalle Bremen is an art museum in Bremen, Germany. It is located close to the Bremen Old Town on the "Culture Mile" (german: Kulturmeile). The Kunsthalle was built in 1849, enlarged in 1902 by architect Eduard Gildemeister, and expanded ...

, Stadtmuseum Hofheim, Kunstmuseum Ahlen, and the Deutschherrenhaus Koblenz.Herzogenrath (ed.), 2005

Selected exhibitions

* 1962: ''Otto Steinert und Schüler. Fotografische Ausstellung'', Gruppenausstellung in der Göppinger Galerie, Frankfurt/Main * 1964: ''Farbige Fotografie. Bilder aus dem Vatikan'', Einzelausstellung: Schatzkammer des Essener Münsters. Die Ausstellung wurde vom Essener Bischof Hengsbach (am 21. März 1964) eröffnet * 1965: ''Zyklus von Farbfotos zum römischen Konzil'', Einzelausstellung in der Galerie Valentin, Stuttgart * 1980: ''Lothar Wolleh: Künstlerbildnisse. Kunstobjekte, Photographien'', Einzelausstellung der Künstlerporträts in der Städtischen

Kunsthalle Düsseldorf Kunsthalle Düsseldorf is an exhibition hall for contemporary art in Düsseldorf. Building The present art centre was built in 1967 in Brutalist architecture by the architects Konrad Beckmann and Brockes. They used commercially available preca ...

* 1986: ''Lothar Wolleh - Das Foto als Kunststück" Einzelausstellung der Lippischen Gesellschaft für Kunst e.V. im Detmolder Schloß * 1995: "Lothar Wolleh 1930-1979: Künstlerbildnisse - Kunstobjekte, Photographien“

Kunstmuseum Ahlen Kunstmuseum is a German word literally translated into English as "art museum". It may refer to: * KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art Aalborg, art museum in Aalborg, Denmark * Kunstmuseum Basel, the largest art museum in Basel, Switzerland * Kunstmuseum ...

* 2005–2007: ''Lothar Wolleh. Eine Wiederentdeckung: Fotografien 1959 bis 1979'', Einzelausstellung:

, Ludwig Museum Koblenz, Kunst-Museum Ahlen, Stadtmuseum Hofheim am Taunus * 2006: ''Joseph Beuys in Aktion. Heilkräfte der Kunst'' – Gruppenausstellung: museum kunst palast, Düsseldorf * 2008: ''Fotos schreiben Kunstgeschichte'' – Gruppenausstellung: museum kunst palast, Düsseldorf * 2008:

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin The Berlin State Museums (german: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) are a group of institutions in Berlin, Germany, comprising seventeen museums in five clusters, several research institutes, libraries, and supporting facilities. They are overseen ...

, Kunstbibliothek, ''Unsterblich! Das Foto des Künstlers'' * 2008: ''Lothar Wolleh: Künstlerportraits'' Galerie f5,6, München * 2009: „Lothar Wolleh: Portraits d'artistes“ Goethe-Institut Paris * 2012: "Lothar Wolleh: Joseph Beuys im Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Januar 1971", Ausstellung im Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin * 2012: “Das Kozil - Fotografien von Lothar Wolleh, Berlin” Bonifatiushaus Fulda * 2013: “Lothar Wolleh (1930 - 1979) Das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil im Bild Fotografien” Franz Hitze Haus, Münster * 2014: ''Lothar Wolleh Künstlerportraits der sechziger und siebziger Jahre'', Kunstmuseum Magdeburg * 2015: ''Lothar Wolleh – Die ZERO–Künstler'', Galerie Pavlov’s Dog, Berlin * 2015: ''Lothar Wolleh - Vaticanum II'', Galerie f5,6, München * 2017: ''Lothar Wolleh - Portraits international bekannter Künstler'', Galerie Ruth Leuchter, Düsseldorf * 2018: „Lothar Wolleh – Bernd Jansen Künstlerportraits“, Hermann Harry Schmitz Institut, Düsseldorf * 2019: „Lothar Wolleh Raum 1 - Menschen, Farben, Licht“, Lothar Wolleh Raum, Berlin * 2020: „Subjekt und Objekt. Foto Rhein Ruhr“, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf * 2020: „Lothar Wolleh Raum 2 - Jenseits der Gegen¬ständlichkeit“, Lothar Wolleh Raum, Berlin * 2020: „The Sky as a Studio. Yves Klein and his Contemporaries“, Centre Pompidou-Metz * 2020: „Lothar Wolleh Raum 3 - Atmosphären der Phantasie“, Lothar Wolleh Raum, Berlin * 2020: „TRUTH/REALITY“, Coppejans Gallery, Antwerpen * 2021: „Joseph Beuys. Der Raumkurator, mit Arbeiten von Lothar Wolleh, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart * 2021: „Der Erfinder der Elektrizität. Joseph Beuys und der Christusimpuls. Mit einer Dokumentation von Lothar Wolleh, St. Matthäus-Kirche, Berlin * 2021: „"Wer nicht denken will fliegt raus.", Coppejans Gallery, Antwerpen * 2021: „Lothar Wolleh: Intuition! Interaction!“, Museum für Zeitgenössische Kunst Antwerpen (M HKA) * 2021: „Sankt Peter in Sankt Peter - Die Rombilder von Lothar Wolleh, Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, Köln * 2021: „Joseph Beuys – Lothar Wolleh: das Unterwasserbuch-Projekt“, Lothar Wolleh Raum, Berlin * 2021: „Westblick – Ostblick , Künstlerporträts von Lothar Wolleh und Lenke Szilágyi, Collegium Hungaricum, Berlin * 2021: „Kriwet – ein Dichter aus Düsseldorf, Heinrich-Heine-Institut, Düsseldorf * 2021: „NOTHINGTOSEENESS void/white/silence“, Akademie der Künste, Berlin * 2021: „Beat the System!“, Ludwig Forum Aachen * 2021: „Beuys & Duchamp Artists of the Future”, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld * 2021: „Lothar Wolleh: Joseph Beuys - Vom Moderna Museet zum Unterwasserbuch-Projekt“, Goethe-Institut, Stockholm * 2021: „Warum denn in die Ferne ..." oder "In 18 Büchern um die Welt", Esslinger Kunstverein e.V. * 2021: „Joseph Beuys: Antecedent, Coincidences and Influences”, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Helga de Alvear, Cáceres * 2022: „Lothar Wolleh Raum 5 - Im Focus Günther Uecker“, Lothar Wolleh Raum, Berlin

Public collections

* Kunst-Museum Ahlen *

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 ...

, Essen * Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf *

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

National Gallery of Scotland The Scottish National Gallery (formerly the National Gallery of Scotland) is the national art gallery of Scotland. It is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh, close to Princes Street. The building was designed in a neoclassical style by W ...

Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź Muzeum () is a Prague Metro station providing the interchange between Lines A and C, and serving the National Museum. It is located at the top end of Wenceslas Square. The Line C station was opened on 9 May 1974, with the first section of ...

, Łódź

Gallery

Image:Rene Magritte by Wolleh.jpg,

Image:Man Ray by Wolleh.jpg,

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 ...

Image:Henry Moore by Wolleh.jpg, Henry Moore Image:Lucio Fontana by Lothar Wolleh.jpg, Lucio Fontana Image:Gerhard Richter by Lothar Wolleh.jpg,

Image:Georg Baselitz by Lothar Wolleh.jpg, Georg Baselitz Image:Otto Piene.jpg, Otto Piene Image:Herbert Zangs.jpg, Herbert Zangs Image:Arman by Lothar Wolleh.jpg, Armand Pierre Fernandez Image:Tinguely by Wolleh.jpg,

Image:Konrad Klapheck by Lothar Wolleh.jpg,

Konrad Klapheck Konrad Klapheck (born February 10, 1935) is a German painter and graphic artist whose style of painting combines features of Surrealism and Pop art. He was born in Düsseldorf. From 1954 to 1956 he studied painting under Bruno Goller at the Kun ...

File:Blinki Palermo.jpg, Blinky Palermo File:Niki de Saint Phalle by Lothar Wolleh.jpg,

Image:Joseph Beuys Filtz TV by Lothar Wolleh.jpg,

Image:Edward Kienholz by Lothar Wolleh.jpg, Edward Kienholz Image: Second Vatican Council by Lothar Wolleh 005 – unframed.jpg,

Image: Second Vatican Council by Lothar Wolleh 007.jpg,

Image: Second Vatican Council by Lothar Wolleh 003.jpg,

Image: Second Vatican Council by Lothar Wolleh 004.jpg,

Image: Second Vatican Council by Lothar Wolleh 001.jpg, Paul VI Image: Second Vatican Council by Lothar Wolleh 006.jpg,

image: Second Vatican Council by Lothar Wolleh 008.jpg,

Publications

*1965: ''The Council: The Second Vatican Council''; Chr. Belser Verlag *1970: ''UdSSR. Der Sowjetstaat und seine Menschen.'' (''USSR: The Soviet State and its people''); Chr. Belser Verlag *1971: ''Günther Uecker / Lothar Wolleh: Nagelbuch''; Verlag Galerie Der Spiegel, Cologne *1972: ''Lothar Wolleh: Art Scene Düsseldorf 1''; Chr. Belser Verlag *1973: ''Das Unterwasserbuch'' (''The Underwater Book'', together with

.) *1975: ''Lothar Wolleh: Apostolorum Limina''; Arcade Verlag, Arcade Verlag *1978: ''Günther Uecker: Ludwig van Beethovens Leonore. Idee einer Oper''; Besser Verlag * 1981: Lothar Wolleh (Photo), Günther Uecker, Guido de Werd (text): ''Bühnenskulpturen für Lohengrin'', Städtisches Museum Haus Koekkoek, Kleve

Notes

References

* * * * *

External links

Website of Lothar WollehLothar Wolleh - Galerie f 5,6
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolleh, Lothar 1930 births 1979 deaths 20th-century German photographers Photographers from Berlin Deaths from asthma