Preview

Bohemians. Posing the Artist in the Photography of the 19th and 20th Century

Museum Ludwig: 24 September 2010 to 9 January 2011

In 1842 Henri Murger published his famous novel, La Boheme, in which the tragic life of a poor artist in the bourgeois era was first described. This book title became a synonym for the artist of the 19th century who, free from the compulsions (and/or the protection) of courts, had to carry his wares to market on his own. Photography in this context served the portrayal and self-portrayal of artists just as it did self-discovery and the documentation of the conditions under which life and work took place.

These photographs were frequently placed in the documentary appendix of publications or art exhibitions, without consideration of their original provenance or significance. The exhibition presents portraits of famous and unknown painters, sculptors, literary figures and actors, along with depictions of their world of work and pleasure, since the invention of photography.

Its earliest reproductions are in the form of daguerreotypes; shown here are solo and group portraits, atelier scenarios and artists’ festivities from the late Biedermeier period, the Belle Epoch, the turn of the century up to the 1920s. The most important photographers from Hermann Biow to Franz Hanfstaengl, from Nadar to Hugo Erfurth and August Sander are represented along with many ‘masters’ unknown up to now.

Suchan Kinoshita

Museum Ludwig: 8 October 2010 to 30 January 2011

Suchan Kinoshita (born 1962 in Tokio, lives in Maastricht and Münster) has been invited to present new work at the Museum Ludwig. Her installations employ sculpture, video and found objects, and is informed by varied interests: theatre and music, but also zen and haiku. She creates a subtle interplay of objects, sounds and spatial relationships that invite viewers to walk around and stop to look closely. Contrasts between sound and quiet, distance and nearness, permanence and fleetingness mark her work.