Carl Strüwe
05 Feb - 13 May 2012
CARL STRÜWE
Reisen in unbekannte Welten
5 February - 13 May 2012
Bielefeld printmaker and photographer Carl Strüwe (1898–1988) is one of the twentieth century’s important, yet comparatively unknown photographers. His landscapes and travel photography tracing the house of Hohenstaufen in Italy set standards for photographic historiography. With his complex of works entitled Microscopic Forms (1926–1959), he became the first photographer to create a unique work of art based on microphotography. In the 1950s Strüwe’s work found acceptance among the avant-garde photographers of his time, and was exhibited and published as part of The New Landscape movement around György Kepes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as the Subjective Photography group around Otto Steinert in Saarbrücken. To this day his microphotography is shown, published, and collected around the world. In addition, there are travel photographs, Alpine landscapes in both painting and photography, freehand drawings and prints, as well as advertising graphics and photography for the Bielefeld print industry in which he worked as a commercial artist for more than 50 years. The complexity of his photographic works—most of which (426 original prints) he donated to the Kunsthalle Bielefeld in 1981—represent an unexplored treasure, especially the groups of microphotographic works. Recently, his oeuvre has received more attention, both nationally and internationally, and Strüwe’s work will be presented in an extensive retrospective, providing an overview of his entire body of work, from the early drawings of an 18-year-old Strüwe, to the major complex of microphotographs and the paintings of his later years.
This exhibition is the product of a collaboration between the Kunsthalle Bielefeld and the Bielefeld Kunstverein, in cooperation with the Carl Strüwe Archive. The exhibition and accompanying publication are supported by the der LWL Kulturstiftung Westfalen-Lippe. A 240-page catalogue with over 160 illustrations from all phases of his oeuvre, and essays by Gottfried Jäger, Jutta Hülsewig-Johnen, and Thomas Thiel will be published by Hirmer. During the run of the show the catalogue will be available at the Museum for 24.90 €, later and in bookstores for 39.90 €.
Reisen in unbekannte Welten
5 February - 13 May 2012
Bielefeld printmaker and photographer Carl Strüwe (1898–1988) is one of the twentieth century’s important, yet comparatively unknown photographers. His landscapes and travel photography tracing the house of Hohenstaufen in Italy set standards for photographic historiography. With his complex of works entitled Microscopic Forms (1926–1959), he became the first photographer to create a unique work of art based on microphotography. In the 1950s Strüwe’s work found acceptance among the avant-garde photographers of his time, and was exhibited and published as part of The New Landscape movement around György Kepes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as the Subjective Photography group around Otto Steinert in Saarbrücken. To this day his microphotography is shown, published, and collected around the world. In addition, there are travel photographs, Alpine landscapes in both painting and photography, freehand drawings and prints, as well as advertising graphics and photography for the Bielefeld print industry in which he worked as a commercial artist for more than 50 years. The complexity of his photographic works—most of which (426 original prints) he donated to the Kunsthalle Bielefeld in 1981—represent an unexplored treasure, especially the groups of microphotographic works. Recently, his oeuvre has received more attention, both nationally and internationally, and Strüwe’s work will be presented in an extensive retrospective, providing an overview of his entire body of work, from the early drawings of an 18-year-old Strüwe, to the major complex of microphotographs and the paintings of his later years.
This exhibition is the product of a collaboration between the Kunsthalle Bielefeld and the Bielefeld Kunstverein, in cooperation with the Carl Strüwe Archive. The exhibition and accompanying publication are supported by the der LWL Kulturstiftung Westfalen-Lippe. A 240-page catalogue with over 160 illustrations from all phases of his oeuvre, and essays by Gottfried Jäger, Jutta Hülsewig-Johnen, and Thomas Thiel will be published by Hirmer. During the run of the show the catalogue will be available at the Museum for 24.90 €, later and in bookstores for 39.90 €.