The photographs are very inspiring. While unable to use them as a direct basis for painting, they do offer the secure guarantee of a form seen.
– Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Like many of his contemporaries, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880 – 1938) was fascinated by the possibilities of photography and exploited them in various ways. In his work there is a noticeable interdependency of photography and visual arts that allows to speak of an almost »photographic pictorial« conception.
The catalog assembles a selection of about 100 photographic works and presents examples of all genres in which Kirchner worked: from nudes, studio scenes, and portraits to landscapes and still life. The artist even compiled inventories of paintings and sculptures and supplemented them with photographs of his works. Moreover, he documented exhibition settings and displays of his paintings. Although Kirchner did not consider himself a photographic artist, he did extensively exploit the possibilities of the medium of photography. The latter was an instrument of artistic discovery and invention for him.
The Kirchner Museum Davos owns a large collection of glass plate and cellulose nitrate negatives of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner from 1908 – 1938. Adding up to a total of about 1500 works, this photographic collection also includes, in addition to the negatives, vintage prints (prints made by the artist himself) and modern prints (later prints). Through extensive support by the Swiss Federal Office for Culture and the Kirchner Verein Davos it has been possible to make this photographic collection fully accessible. All negatives were digitalised and high-grade, museum quality gelatine silver prints were made of each negative. For the first time this has created the conditions to highlight the full range of Kirchner’s varied and sometimes experimental approach to the medium of photography.
BOOK
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
The Artist as Photographer
Kehrer Verlag
Edited by Thorsten Sadowsky
Texts by Stephan Bösch, Thorsten Sadowsky
Designed by Susanne Bax
Hardcover
21,5 x 27,5 cm
216 pages
144 duotone ills.
German / English
ISBN 978-3-86828-702-8
Euro 39,90
http://www.kehrerverlag.com
EXHIBITION
The Artist as Photographer.
The Photographic Work of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
November 22, 2015 – May 01, 2016
Kirchner Museum Davos
Promenade 82
7270 Davos
Switzerland
http://www.kirchnermuseum.ch
