F.C. Gundlach
21 Jun - 30 Jul 2011
F.C. Gundlach
„DIE MODELINIE“
1956
gelatin silver print on baryte, vintage print
30.2 x 39.5 cm / 11.81 x 15.75"
„DIE MODELINIE“
1956
gelatin silver print on baryte, vintage print
30.2 x 39.5 cm / 11.81 x 15.75"
F.C. GUNDLACH
Berliner Durchreise
21 June to 30 July, 2011
Contemporary Fine Arts is pleased to present the exhibition “Berliner Durchreise” with photographs by F.C. Gundlach from 21 June to 30 July 2011.
The focus of the exhibition will be on fashion photographs made in Berlin between 1950 and 1965, at a time when F.C. Gundlach worked for the magazine Film und Frau. Berlin and Berlin couture are highly significant in the oeuvre of F.C. Gundlach, who since 1953 has repeatedly worked and lived in the city. Between 1953 and 1965, he made fascinating fashion photographs of the Berlin chic, for which he used the city of Berlin and its architecture as elements that defined these pictures. At that time, all fashion editors travelled to Berlin twice a year for the so-called “Berliner Durchreise” to photograph the latest collections of the Berlin fashion designers and couturiers. Couturiers like Gehringer & Glupp, Staebe-Seger, Sinaida Rudow-Brosda, Schwichtenberg, Schröder und Eggeringhaus, Heinz Oestergaard, Uli Richter, Lindenstaedt & Brettschneider, Horn, and many others presented their new collections. Fashion designers, editors, models, and fashion photographers populated the city for weeks. During the day, Kurfürstendamm and Avus became stages, and the photographers were busy in the studios for entire nights on end. At that time, there was a mood of optimism and euphoria – an important chapter of Berlin’s fashion history.
The photographs selected for the exhibition created an almost fictional post-war Berlin, without ruins and traces of destruction. The surviving historic buildings formed an almost symbolic background chosen by the photographers of the time for the collections of Berlin’s fashion designers – and they also chose very modern buildings as backdrops, which stood for renewal and optimism. They showed not so much reality as the wishes and dreams of a generation.
In the mid-1960s, the situation of fashion in Berlin changed. Like in Paris, the prêt-à-porter collections began to supplant haute couture, but above all, the construction of the Wall had dramatic consequences. The couturiers in the West were suddenly separated from their intermediaries and tailors and dressmakers in the East; the life nerve of the Berlin fashion industry was severed, which led to the end of Berlin’s heyday as a fashion centre. But the tradition of Berlin as a city of fashion is now being revived by events such as Fashion Week, Bread & Butter, and Premium.
Berliner Durchreise
21 June to 30 July, 2011
Contemporary Fine Arts is pleased to present the exhibition “Berliner Durchreise” with photographs by F.C. Gundlach from 21 June to 30 July 2011.
The focus of the exhibition will be on fashion photographs made in Berlin between 1950 and 1965, at a time when F.C. Gundlach worked for the magazine Film und Frau. Berlin and Berlin couture are highly significant in the oeuvre of F.C. Gundlach, who since 1953 has repeatedly worked and lived in the city. Between 1953 and 1965, he made fascinating fashion photographs of the Berlin chic, for which he used the city of Berlin and its architecture as elements that defined these pictures. At that time, all fashion editors travelled to Berlin twice a year for the so-called “Berliner Durchreise” to photograph the latest collections of the Berlin fashion designers and couturiers. Couturiers like Gehringer & Glupp, Staebe-Seger, Sinaida Rudow-Brosda, Schwichtenberg, Schröder und Eggeringhaus, Heinz Oestergaard, Uli Richter, Lindenstaedt & Brettschneider, Horn, and many others presented their new collections. Fashion designers, editors, models, and fashion photographers populated the city for weeks. During the day, Kurfürstendamm and Avus became stages, and the photographers were busy in the studios for entire nights on end. At that time, there was a mood of optimism and euphoria – an important chapter of Berlin’s fashion history.
The photographs selected for the exhibition created an almost fictional post-war Berlin, without ruins and traces of destruction. The surviving historic buildings formed an almost symbolic background chosen by the photographers of the time for the collections of Berlin’s fashion designers – and they also chose very modern buildings as backdrops, which stood for renewal and optimism. They showed not so much reality as the wishes and dreams of a generation.
In the mid-1960s, the situation of fashion in Berlin changed. Like in Paris, the prêt-à-porter collections began to supplant haute couture, but above all, the construction of the Wall had dramatic consequences. The couturiers in the West were suddenly separated from their intermediaries and tailors and dressmakers in the East; the life nerve of the Berlin fashion industry was severed, which led to the end of Berlin’s heyday as a fashion centre. But the tradition of Berlin as a city of fashion is now being revived by events such as Fashion Week, Bread & Butter, and Premium.