CANDIDA HOFER
curated by Gunda Luyken
Museum Kunstpalast
Ehrenhof 4-5 - Düsseldorf
14/9/2013 - 9/2/2014
For the first time, Museum Kunstpalast is showing an overview exhibition of Candida Höfer, comprising approximately 70 works created exclusively in Düsseldorf in the course of 40 years. The presentation includes large-scale individual works, work groups, projections and an early film by the artist, which she shot jointly with Tony Morgan in the Düsseldorf ice cream parlour Da Forno in 1975. Most of the works have never been shown to the public.
Like Andreas Gursky, Axel Hütte, Tata Ronkholz, Thomas Struth or Petra Wunderlich, Candida Höfer is part of the internationally renowned “Düsseldorf School of Photography“.
Her work is closely linked with the city of Düsseldorf. It was here where her first solo exhibition was staged in a gallery, and here she came across new and very different motifs time and again ever since she began to study with Bernd Becher at the Academy of Art.
The exhibition “Düsseldorf“ stands for beginnings. But it is not only about the work of that time, “Düsseldorf” also shows the ways in which I work today. So it is about work back then and work today. It is about change. (Candida Höfer)
Candida Höfer’s oeuvre is characterised by cool objectivity, a keen interest in structures and order in public spaces, and by a precise grasp of details. Apart from large-scale interiors, such as the Düsseldorf Opera or the photographs of the interiors of a number of art institutions, such as Museum Kunstpalast or the Julia Stoschek Collection, the exhibition also shows pictures from her first photographic series Turks in Germany.
As regards the development of Höfer’s work, some of her recent works are illuminating, such as the pictures of the Neue Stahlhof, which point towards a new, more abstract direction. While in the past the artist most frequently revealed correlations in her pictures, she today concentrates on an individual motif.
Candida Höfer lives and works in Cologne. From 1997 until 2000 she was Professor of Photography at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe. She is member of the Freie Akademie der Künste Hamburg and of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts in Düsseldorf.
Catalogue
with contributions by Lothar Baumgarten, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Fanni Fetzer, Friedrich Wolfram Heubach, Candida Höfer, Gabriele Hofer-Hagenauer, Erika Krugel, Gunda Luyken, Michael Oppitz and Friedemann von Stockhausen.
Published by Richter|Fey Verlag, 192-pages, 39.90 €.
Special edition
On occasion of the exhibition two photographs dated 2011 are released as a special edition: Benrather Schloss IV 2011 and Dreischeibenhaus Düsseldorf IV 2011. Both motifs are available in the museum’s shop or online.
Image: Neuer Stahlhof Düsseldorf II 2012, 180 x 209 cm C-Print © Candida Höfer, VG Bild-Kunst, 2013
curated by Gunda Luyken
Museum Kunstpalast
Ehrenhof 4-5 - Düsseldorf
14/9/2013 - 9/2/2014
For the first time, Museum Kunstpalast is showing an overview exhibition of Candida Höfer, comprising approximately 70 works created exclusively in Düsseldorf in the course of 40 years. The presentation includes large-scale individual works, work groups, projections and an early film by the artist, which she shot jointly with Tony Morgan in the Düsseldorf ice cream parlour Da Forno in 1975. Most of the works have never been shown to the public.
Like Andreas Gursky, Axel Hütte, Tata Ronkholz, Thomas Struth or Petra Wunderlich, Candida Höfer is part of the internationally renowned “Düsseldorf School of Photography“.
Her work is closely linked with the city of Düsseldorf. It was here where her first solo exhibition was staged in a gallery, and here she came across new and very different motifs time and again ever since she began to study with Bernd Becher at the Academy of Art.
The exhibition “Düsseldorf“ stands for beginnings. But it is not only about the work of that time, “Düsseldorf” also shows the ways in which I work today. So it is about work back then and work today. It is about change. (Candida Höfer)
Candida Höfer’s oeuvre is characterised by cool objectivity, a keen interest in structures and order in public spaces, and by a precise grasp of details. Apart from large-scale interiors, such as the Düsseldorf Opera or the photographs of the interiors of a number of art institutions, such as Museum Kunstpalast or the Julia Stoschek Collection, the exhibition also shows pictures from her first photographic series Turks in Germany.
As regards the development of Höfer’s work, some of her recent works are illuminating, such as the pictures of the Neue Stahlhof, which point towards a new, more abstract direction. While in the past the artist most frequently revealed correlations in her pictures, she today concentrates on an individual motif.
Candida Höfer lives and works in Cologne. From 1997 until 2000 she was Professor of Photography at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe. She is member of the Freie Akademie der Künste Hamburg and of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts in Düsseldorf.
Catalogue
with contributions by Lothar Baumgarten, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Fanni Fetzer, Friedrich Wolfram Heubach, Candida Höfer, Gabriele Hofer-Hagenauer, Erika Krugel, Gunda Luyken, Michael Oppitz and Friedemann von Stockhausen.
Published by Richter|Fey Verlag, 192-pages, 39.90 €.
Special edition
On occasion of the exhibition two photographs dated 2011 are released as a special edition: Benrather Schloss IV 2011 and Dreischeibenhaus Düsseldorf IV 2011. Both motifs are available in the museum’s shop or online.
Image: Neuer Stahlhof Düsseldorf II 2012, 180 x 209 cm C-Print © Candida Höfer, VG Bild-Kunst, 2013
