how-the-duesseldorf-school-revolutionised-photography

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http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170817-how-the-dsseldorf-school-revolutionised-photography

A BBC report: A generation of photographers from Germany transformed photography in the 1980s and 90s, and credit is due to their two teachers, writes Alastair Sooke.

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Andreas Gursky’s photograph of a Montparnasse tower block is a stunning mosaic of colour (Credit: Andreas Gursky)
 
People often don't agree on art types and styles. For some reason, there exist people who like such photographs.
 
Strange article, IMO. Load of text, yet, tossing four pictures round and round and round and those four pictures are nothing special. Except maybe portrait, which has nothing to do with other pictures. I would like to find more. A. Gursky photo seems to be different from what is in the article.
 
It's fine if people like it but I find it too ordinary. I think much of it looks like glorified amateur snapshots.

A German friend and I went to the High Museum in Atlanta for an exhibition of Struth's photos and a talk he and the director of MOMA were giving. When we left we were quite disappointed. The theme of the show should have been if you can't make it interesting make it big. It consisted of huge boring images accompanied with an even bigger ego. His lecture consisted of how he scouts and visualizes, exactly like every commercial photographer has done for the last century when preparing for a commercial shoot. His lab was good but his photography with the exception one or two images was ordinary and boring. He was however impressed with himself.
 
x-ray said:
I just can't get excited about this style. It's kind of like rap music in my book. It's visual noise that's nothing special.
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when people say they like all sorts of music, except rap and country, i roll my eyes. there's tons of fantastic rap and country.
 
I've recently seen a big show of the Düsseldorf school here in Frankfurt. The Gurski picture above I found impressive, printed about four meters wide. Some others I liked, others didn't do much for me. They are a diverse bunch, and although they certainly share some ideas and approaches, grouping them together because they studied under the same teachers doesn't quite do them justice. They should have either exhibited them individually rather than in a group show or somehow put in more curatorial effort and grouped them thematically rather then photographer by photographer. That was my impression.
Surprisingly for me, the work that spoke to me most was that of Petra Wunderlich. Photos of quarries and stone buildings, I can't quite put into words what it is about it, and I didn't get it when looking at the pictures online before I went to the exhibit.
There are some pictures to look at at the website of the museum (and some text): http://becherklasse.staedelmuseum.de/en
 
thank's for the link
still being almost an illiterate concerning famous photographers of course I had never heard of this school, Becher and the other photographers.
I kind of like it, specially the Kiosk of Tata Ronkholz. Permit me say, the style of putting them center, no perspective but from front on, no people..I did the same when I tried to document small, private shops in typical but fast disappearing shopping streets around Osaka.
in the German context music of "Kraftwerk" comes to my mind
 
A difficult topic...for sure the Düsseldorf School has been important in the scene of photography as art.

I like the concept behind the Bernd and Hilla Becher work, the subjects, the grey tones, the exact framing so consistent in their pictures. And I like the idea to classify all these subject following Linneo principles when he classified vegetables.

But I do not like the huge size of the prints.

A few years ago I visited an exhibition by Duane Michals who presented it in a very nice and friendly way. He was very open to discuss a lot of things. In the same museum were exhibited a couple of the Bechers pictures and somebody ask him his opinion.

He said that printing and exhibit so large is like shouting when photography should be like whispering. And I fully agree, I like small prints! I do not like to shout, in life and in photography!

And as someone who likes Robert Frank's work I prefer photos with less perfection but more emotion.

Of course this is my personal taste and as Raid already said it's nice that there are different people with different opinions!

robert
 
Canyongazer said:
"credit" or "blame?"

Once again, the forge of Post Modernism strikes with the hammer of academia.
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Don't forget to credit gallery owners/auction houses/Art Critics in part for the print size and PR funding. The bigger the print, the bigger the $ for the sale, and a bigger cut for the agent. Do you think Rhine II would be worth $2+M if it was a 20x24" print? Gallery owners, Art Critics and museum curators spend a lot of time socializing.

There must be a marketing course given at the Düsseldorf School?
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/16/...ouisa-clement-anna-vogel-moritz-wegwerth.html

"Clement Greenberg was probably the single most influential art critic in the twentieth century. Although he is most closely associated with his support for Abstract Expressionism, and in particular Jackson Pollock, his views closely shaped the work of many other artists, including Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, and Kenneth Noland. His attention to the formal properties of art - color, line, space and so forth - his rigorous approach to criticism, and his understanding of the development of modern art - although they have all been challenged - have influenced generations of critics and historians."
http://www.theartstory.org/critic-greenberg-clement.htm








x
 
I saw a Struth exhibition at the Haus Der Kunst in Munich two weeks ago and the Dusseldorf School exhibit at the Washington National Gallery a few months ago. The images look amazing on that scale (BIG!), but the photos and subjects are just plain boring. The large format is the only thing "new", and I generally don't like new art movements that are solely based on advancement in technology (in this case large sensors). From an artistic point of view, I find them underwhelming.
 
PKR said:
"Clement Greenberg was probably the single most influential art critic in the twentieth century. Although he is most closely associated with his support for Abstract Expressionism, and in particular Jackson Pollock, his views closely shaped the work of many other artists, including Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, and Kenneth Noland. His attention to the formal properties of art - color, line, space and so forth - his rigorous approach to criticism, and his understanding of the development of modern art - although they have all been challenged - have influenced generations of critics and historians."
http://www.theartstory.org/critic-greenberg-clement.htm
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Interesting that you mention Greenberg in this context. I am actually in the postproduction phase for a documentary film about the Washington Color School and the influence Greenberg had on them, with tons of interviews with people who knew Clement Greenberg. He was such a powerful art critic that other people blindly believed and repeated what he said. Reminds me a bit of the fan boys of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. 🙄 Greenberg told many stories that promoted his point of view that later turned out to be completely made up, just to further his cause and influence. Nobody had the guts to contract or question him.

In the absence if influential critics like Greenberg, who is giving art new directions and drives the arts market today? Gallery owners, people with deep pockets?
 
I used to be a hater on the Düsseldorf school. Once I saw a collection of large prints, including several by Gursky, I was converted. For me the images are like Color Field paintings, especially for example Rhein II.

I also thoroughly enjoyed Struth's exhibit at the High in Atlanta last year that x-ray mentioned. I spent hours there looking at his industrial images.
 
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