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Mise en Scène

Photographs and Photocollages

Zug
Feb 2 - April 30, 2003
with work by Dimitri Jermakov, Solomon Telingater, Alexander Rodschenko, Werner Krüger/Andy Warhol, Karl Lagerfeld

The current photography exhibitions "Soviet Photography of the 1920s and 1930s" in the Winterthur Art Museum and "Pioneers of Photography: Russian and Soviet Photography from Swiss Collections" in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg provide the Galerie Gmurzynska Zug with the perfect opportunity to present a fine selection of photography and photo collage from Dimitri Yermakov, Solomon Telingater, Alexander Rodchenko, Karl Lagerfeld and Werner Krüger/Andy Warhol. Under the title "Mise en scène" – the presentation of architecture and the human figure – the exhibition builds a bridge from the early ethnologically motivated portraits of Dimitri Yermakov up to the highly aestheticized "Body Parts" by Karl Lagerfeld.

After his education in topography at a military academy in the late 1860s, the photographer and researcher Dimitri Yermakov ran photo studios in Tiflis and Kislovodsk. Between 1870 and 1915, with his camera and mobile photo lab, he traveled through Persia and Turkey, the southern Crimea, and the Transcaspian region, participated in archeological expeditions and was the official photographer of the Shah of Persia. He was awarded several times, including from the Society of French Photographers (1874) and the governments of Persia, Italy and Turkey.

Solomon Telingater, the book illustrator, graphic artist and professional printer, worked in Moscow starting in 1925 for a series of leading publishing houses. He met El Lissitzky in 1927 and began to work closely with him, under the influences of constructivism. Based on his excellent knowledge of printing techniques, he developed his own innovative artistic style, which combined photo collage, modern typography and the use of new materials for printing books. In so doing, his efforts went a long way to developing photo collage as an artistic medium of its own.

As a painter, photographer, designer and typographer, the constructivist Alexander Rodchenko belongs to the group of central figures of the Russian Avant-garde. After visiting art school in Kazan and the Stroganov School for Art and Industry in Moscow, he became active in Moscow's artist circles and exhibited regularly beginning in 1913 at many important exhibitions of the Russian Avant-garde movement. In his earlier works, he was impressed by the art and writings of Kazimir Malevich and Wassily Kandinsky and used their influences to develop his own style. Together with his wife, Varvara Stepanova, Alexei Gan, Karl Ioganson, and Georgii Stenberg, he founded the Group of Constructivists. In 1921, Rodchenko declared the death of easel painting and turned his attentions increasingly to photography. Rodchenko was one of the founding members of the Institute for Artistic Culture in Moscow and taught in the WKhUTEMA wood and metal workshops, and had a teaching position in photography at the Moscow Polygraphic Institute. He was a member of the LEF group organized by Vladimir Mayakovski and made many contributions to the publications Kinophot, Ogonek and UdSSR in Construction.

Karl Lagerfeld, world-famous fashion designer, has dedicated a significant amount of his time since the 1990s to the art of photography. His work is represented by portraits, male and female nudes, architecture and landscapes – as individual works, series or illustrated stories – and provides an overview of his recent photographs, presented for the second time to the public by Galerie Gmurzynska Zug. It will be easy to notice how fruitful it can be to cross over from one creative métier to another, and that Lagerfeld, in the tradition of the artistic photography of this century, has carved out his own niche.

Werner Krüger has been working since the 1970s as an art journalist and filmmaker, during which time he has had the opportunity to collaborate with several leading artists, including Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol. His photographic engagement spanned long periods of time in which he was able to observe and get close to his artist subjects. His intention is always to expose the artistic attitude and to reveal the specific temperament of the artist using photography. As an signal of identification with his work with Werner Krüger, Andy Warhol personally signed all his Krüger photographs. Like Beuys, Warhol accepted very early on that every artistic medium has an expanded concept that includes cooperation, synergy and collective action. Particularly with respect to the medium of photography, Warhol's approach can be acknowledged as one of leadership into new horizons.