Art Cologne 2023

16 – 19 November, 2023

Hall 11.1 / Booth C 131

Preview: Thursday, 16 November, 12pm – 8pm
Vernissage: Thursday, 16 November, 4 – 8 pm

At this year's edition of Art Cologne, Galerie Julian Sander and Galerie Les Douches, Paris, participate with a linked stand architecture and a jointly curated area on the theme of "Nudes in Photography".

At the center of the presentation is a curated group of August Sander's famous portraits from "People of the 20th Century". With his epochal project People of the 20th Century, which spanned several decades, August Sander not only set new standards in the portrait photography of his time. With his equally humanistically, sociologically and aesthetically motivated undertaking, he continues to inspire subsequent generations of photographers and artists to this day. The selection on show at Art Cologne consists of large-format photographs that Gerd Sander masterfully reproduced from the original glass negatives in an edition in the 1990s.

Another focus is on works by the Cologne photographer Chargesheimer (1924 - 1972). Born Karl Heinz Hargesheimer, he studied graphics and photography at the Cologne Werkschule and began his career as a freelance photographer for various theaters in Germany. At the center of his photographic oeuvre is "street photography". Mostly in series, they tell the story of street life in his home city of Cologne and other cities. His documentary work includes above all his portraits, which are closely linked to the visual language of theater photography. His portraits are often drastically exaggerated, theatrical and mask-like. Chargesheimer plays with light and shadow as well as light-dark contrasts, creating deep, matte blacks. From 1950 onwards, Chargesheimer experimented with abstract light graphics on photographic paper and surrealistic photomontages. In the 1960s, he created kinetic light sculptures made of movable Plexiglas and steel elements, which he described as "meditation mills". The gallery is delighted to be able to show one of the original kinetic sculptures at Art Cologne.

As an artist, Chargesheimer was a singular figure who consistently refused to follow trends and fashions in art. At the end of the 1940s, he was in contact with the Fotoform group. In 1950, Chargesheimer took part in the "photo-kino" exhibition in Cologne and the legendary "Subjective Photography" exhibitions in 1952 and 1954. He refused to belong to any particular group of artists or movement and saw himself as a loner.

Another central figure in post-war photography and co-founder of the avant-garde photographer group Fotoform is Peter Keetman. He knew how to combine the influence exerted on him by the "New Photographers" of the Weimar era with his own individual perception of the reality around him and to translate it into a new, contemporary aesthetic. During his photographic work, which spanned several decades, he focused on recurring subjects. He was interested in visually appealing phenomena found in nature and the world of things. At Art Cologne, the gallery is showing recently rediscovered vintage prints from Gerd Sander's collection, most of which were acquired from the photographer himself.

These will be complemented by photographs by Adolf Lazi, one of the most important photographers of object and design photography in Germany from the 1950s to the 1960s, whom Keetman assisted for a year in 1948 and further honed his craftsmanship and technical precision. He was also a founding member of the avantgarde photographer group Fotoform and a pioneer of "subjective photography".

With a reference to the current exhibition "Rosalind Fox Solomon - Photographs from the Private Archive" at the gallery, a strong portrait of the artist by William Eggleston will be presented.