ABISAG TÜLLMANN 1935–1996. Photojournalistic Work and
Transcrição
ABISAG TÜLLMANN 1935–1996. Photojournalistic Work and
Press Release of 20 April 2011 ABISAG TÜLLMANN 1935–1996. Photojournalistic Work and Theatre Photography 24 November 2010 to 27 March 2011 To honour Abisag Tüllmann on the seventy-fifth anniversary of her birth, the historisches museum frankfurt mounted a posthumous exhibition which was the first ever to show the oeuvre of one of Germany’s most prominent photo artists in all its complexity. In addition to her extensive photojournalistic-artistic work, Tüllmann documented more than two hundred stage performances. The show and accompanying catalogue brought these two aspects together for the first time. Counting more than eighteen thousand visitors, the exhibition was warmly received by the public, and inspired many to come back a second or third time. It was not only the quality of the photographs and their historical context that elicited positive response, but also the exhibition concept. “Saw it the second time, and now realized: the photos, of course, are wonderful, but they’re also exceptionally well grouped and hung”, one visitor wrote in the guest book. The presentation was featured in the daily news show Tagesschau already on the day of its opening; extensive and unanimously positive coverage in the print and online media followed. The Exhibition Project The project was based on the first scholarly examination and evaluation of the Tüllmann estate in the holdings of the Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin (50,000 prints, 260,000 negatives, 10,000 transparencies, archive material) and the Deutsches Theatermuseum in Munich (17,000 prints, 350,000 negatives, 17,000 transparencies). In addition to extensive research in further public and private archives, Tüllmann’s working methods were reconstructed with the aid of interviews with her assistants, clients, fellow artists and friends. Drawing from forty years of free-lance photojournalistic activity, the presentation in six large, thematically arranged spatial units comprised a selection of more than 385 black-and-white vintage prints and three colour projections as well as numerous examples of the extensive publication of Tüllmann’s photographic imagery in newspapers, magazines and books. The original shots for the photo book Großstadt (“Metropolis”) published in 1963 – an homage to Abisag Tüllmann’s adopted home town Frankfurt am Main – formed the grandiose prelude to her diverse photographic oeuvre. Photographs of the events and protagonists of the “Protests of 1968” such as Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Joschka Fischer, of the art and theatre scene in Germany and abroad with pictures of Joseph Beuys and Bernhard Minetti, but also of politicians and leading figures in the business community, make Abisag Tüllmann a chronicler of the second half of the twentieth century. This status is further confirmed by the photojournalistic essays she carried out on the post-colonial developments in Algeria, Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and South Africa – to which an entire room was devoted – and on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Her second chief focus was the photographic documentation of theatrical productions, for which she received commissions from important drama and opera theatre stages within and outside Germany. She first ventured into this genre in early 1960s Frankfurt, as seen in works found in a private collection within the framework of research for the show. Tüllmann’s artistic collaboration with Claus Peymann, whose productions she accompanied photographically over a period of nearly thirty years, constituted one of the highlights in the section on her theatre photography oeuvre. From 1958 onwards, photographs by Abisag Tüllmann published in newspapers, magazines and books contributed to shaping the collective pictorial memory of the German and international public. As a photojournalist and theatre photographer, she directed her gaze towards the political, social and artistic upheavals of her time. She observed everyday life and the conditions of human co-existence in the world with subtle humour. Themes such as segregation, homelessness and the vulnerability of human existence were always at the centre of her dedicated photographic activity. The exhibition concept accordingly attached special importance to these aspects which were of such decisive significance for Tüllmann’s work. The exhibition was realized in cooperation with the Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, the Deutsches Theatermuseum, Munich, and the Abisag Tüllmann Stiftung, Frankfurt, the holders of the photographic and written documents from the Tüllmann estate, the large majority of which have never been published. The Accompanying Book The book published in conjunction with the show provides well-founded insights into Abisag Tüllmann’s multifarious oeuvre on 304 pages containing 298 black-and-white and colour illustrations. The six thematic essays by Martha Caspers, Monika Haas, Barbara Lauterbach, Kristina Lowis and Katharina Sykora and the biography drawn up by Ulrike May were based on hitherto unknown written sources and numerous conversations with contemporaries. The Hatje Cantz publishing company pioneered with the catalogue – a volume printed in outstanding quality –, as was confirmed by Hans-Michael Koetzle in the specialist journal PHOTO International: “Apart from the thin catalogue of 1995, there had not been a single monograph on Abisag Tüllmann to date. […] Seen against this background, the new publication is nothing less than the first historical-critical work ever to appear on an artist who is doubtlessly to be considered one of the Federal German Republic’s most important representatives of photography.” (edition 02/2011, pp. 22f.) The Accompanying Programme A special highlight of the accompanying programme was the one-day event Zwischen Stillstand und Bewegung – Abisag Tüllmanns Arbeiten für den Film (“Between Stasis and Motion – Abisag Tüllmann’s Works for Film”) taking place at the Mal Seh’n cinema on 30 January 2011.There, in three sessions, four films were shown: Von der Schönheit des Alltäglichen. Die Fotografin Abisag Tüllmann (“Of the Beauty of the Commonplace: The Photographer Abisag Tüllmann”), Germany, 1996 by Carola Benninghoven; Tue recht und scheue niemand – Das Leben der Gerda Siepenbrink, (“Do What Is Right and Fear No One – The Life of Gerda Siepenbrink”), FRG, 1975 by Jutta Brückner; Die allseitig reduzierte Persönlichkeit – Redupers (“The All-Round Reduced Personality – Redupers”), FRG, 1977 by Helke Sander; and Die Reise nach Lyon (“Journey to Lyon”), FRG, 1978–80 by Claudia von Alemann. At screenings which were almost completely sold out, the directors present vividly recounted their collaboration with Abisag Tüllmann and her important contributions to their film projects. The event as well as catalogue essay by Monika Haas served to demarcate the photographer Tüllmann’s interest in film, an aspect hitherto unknown or neglected. PM AT Abschluss 2011_04_2011 On 2 March 2011, Professor Katharina Sykora of the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig gave a lecture entitled Schauplatz Großstadt. Abisag Tüllmanns Frankfurtansichten (“The Metropolitan Arena: Abisag Tüllmann’s Views of Frankfurt”), providing an in-depth introduction to the photo book Großstadt (“Metropolis”). By comparing this work with concurrent publications such as Elisabeth Niggemeyer’s Das Münchener Jahr (“The Year in Munich) of 1957 and Heinrich Heidersberger‘s Wolfsburg - Bilder einer jungen Stadt (“Wolfsburg – Pictures of a Young City”) of 1963, she was able to demonstrate the outstanding photographic and graphic modernity of Tüllmann’s portrait of Frankfurt. The final presentation in the hmf’s “new building” of 1972 before its demolition culminated in the show’s finissage on 27 March. The guests of honour – Prof. Jean Christophe Ammann, former director of the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Deputy Mayor Jutta Ebeling and the cellist Frank Wolff – led brief and lively guided tours in which they showed the large crowd of visitors their favourite Tüllmann photos. What Will Follow, What Will Remain? The exhibition will next be presented at the Museum für Fotografie, Sammlung Fotografie der Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin from 17 June to 18 September 2011. A third venue is in planning. Within the framework of the scholarly preparations for the show, extensive new source material was studied. These written records, letters and photographs will be transferred from the Abisag Tüllmann Stiftung, Frankfurt, to the Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin to complete the estate in the holdings of the latter institution and make the material accessible for future research. The historisches museum frankfurt was able to enhance its own Tüllmann holdings through donations of photographs and posters bearing a relationship to Frankfurt from the Abisag Tüllmann Stiftung and private collections. Information on the Exhibition Curators Martha Caspers, M.A. (project head) Kristina Lowis, Ph.D., Barbara Lauterbach. M.A., Ulrike May. M.A. Design exposition GbR, Frankfurt / M. – Martin Krämer and Sabine Gutjahr Supporters and cooperation partners Abisag Tüllmann Stiftung, Frankfurt / M. Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin Deutsches Theatermuseum, Munich Dr. Marschner Stiftung, Frankfurt / M. Evonik Industries AG, Frankfurt / M. Hessische Kulturstiftung, Wiesbaden Kulturamt Stadt Frankfurt / M. Richard Stury Stiftung, Munich Wüstenrot Stiftung, Ludwigsburg PM AT Abschluss 2011_04_2011 Partners in the accompanying programme Mal Seh’n Kino Römer 9, Evangelische Stadtakademie Zentralbibliothek Stadtbücherei Frankfurt am Main Accompanying Book Abisag Tüllmann 1936-1996. Bildreportagen und Theaterfotografie, 304 pages, 298 black-andwhite and colour illustrations with texts by Martha Caspers, Monika Haas, Barbara Lauterbach, Kristina Lowis, Ulrike May and Katharina Sykora, ed. by Martha Caspers, published as vol. 30 of the Schriften des historischen museums frankfurt, ed. by Jan Gerchow, Hatje Cantz Verlag, price 29.80 € Contact historisches museum Frankfurt, Office: Solmsstraße 18 D-60486 Frankfurt am Main tel.: +49(0)69 212-35599 fax: +49(0)69 212-30702 mailto:[email protected] www.historisches-museum-frankfurt.de PM AT Abschluss 2011_04_2011