Tag: 1910s

Valeska Gert, 1918

Atelier Leopold :: Valeska Gert, 1918. German card (Munich). Collection: Didier Hanson. | src Flickr
“Jewish cabaret artist Waleska Gert (1892-1978) and her dark, aquiline features became famous in Berlin with her radical modern dances. She was also active as an artists’ model and appeared in several classics of the Weimar cinema. After a comeback in Fellini’s Giulietta degli spiriti / Juliet of the Spirits (1965), she worked with the film makers of the New German Cinema of the 1970s.” (quoted from source)

Karl Blossfeldt ::

Acer rufinerve, 1910′s-1920′s / src: Michael Hoppen Gallery

“What made Blossfeldt’s work unique was his extreme technical mastery of photography. He specialised in macrophotography to enlarge his plant specimens and even designed a camera for this purpose. As a result, everyday garden flowers are presented in such a way that their rhythmic forms are emphasised to the extreme and the plants take on new and exotic characteristics. Blossfeldt wanted his work to act as a teaching aid and inspiration for architects, sculptors and artists. It was his firm belief that only through the close study of the intrinsic beauty present in natural forms, that contemporary art would find its true direction.”

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Karl Blossfeldt :: Bryonia alba (White bryony, with leaf) B, 1920′s. Pinakothek der Moderne, München / src: Michael Hoppen Gallery

“From 1898-1932, Blossfeldt taught sculpture based on natural plant forms at the Royal School of the Museum of Decorative Arts (now the Hochschule für Bildende Künste) in Berlin. In his lifetime Blossfeldt’s work gained praise and support from critics such as Walter Benjamin, artists of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Realism) and the Paris Surrealists. The words of Walter Benjamin repositioned the artist in modern art and photography and prior to publishing his photographic book in 1926, Blossfeldt was sent an invitation to exhibit his work at the Karl Nierendorf’s gallery.” 

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