A comprehensive presentation of Michael Schmidt (1945-2014)—one of the seminal German photographers of the postwar era is on view at Paris Photo. The exhibit was conceived in collaboration with Thomas Weski, curator of the Michael Schmidt Foundation, who is currently working on a retrospective of the artist’s work at the National Galerie Berlin in 2020.
Michael Schmidt worked mainly in large series, and for each of his projects developed a new idiosyncratic pictorial language. His work is distinguished by an uncompromising approach to reality and the persistent quest of finding a new approach to reality by means of photography.
The presentation at Paris Photo comprises groups and constellations from almost all of his major series. His intense and poignant work about the Berlin wall Waffenruhe (Ceasefire) from 1985-87 will be featured with a triptych and a block of nine photographs. It is probably his most famous series and was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in 1988 and many museums in Europe. Schmidt’s epic exploration of the global food industry titled Lebensmittel (Food), 2006-2010 will be shown in a special constellation conceived by the artist during his lifetime.
The project was exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2013 and awarded the prestigious Prix Pictet in 2014. On view will be more photographs from 89/90, 1989-90/2009, a series of stark fragmental images capturing what remained of the wall in the city of Berlin, as well as the artist’s early cityscapes from the 1970s and a group from his series Frauen (Women) from 1997- 99. A sequence of images from Natur (Nature), the project the artist completed shortly before his death in 2014 will be presented as well. Intimate in scale, these formidable photographs of scrub, trees, grass and land convey an existential understanding of nature and its significance for us.
Michael Schmidt’s oeuvre reflects the varying ideologies of the 20th Century in Germany and traces their impact on the individual—to a large extend by capturing the urban environment in his hometown Berlin, the city of the wall. Characteristic for his sober yet lyrical black-and-white photographs is the use of a wealth of greys in all their nuanced variations. Schmidt’s works are imbued with an uncompromising resistance, precisely because they are entirely devoid of agitation, theatricality or drama, and any direct light. As Lewis Baltz wrote “He is an artist of the fragment, of complexity, of contradiction.”
Michael Schmidt – Galerie Nordenhake, Booth A22
At Paris Photo 2016
November 10 to 13, 2016
Grand Palais
Paris, France
