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.
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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
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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
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