The premiere exhibition of “Vintage Photography of the 1920s and 1930s” on November 9th, 2000 marks the opening of Galerie Priska Pasquer in Cologne. The newly opened gallery located at Goebenstraße 3 offers collectors of fine art photography a first-time opportunity to view a representative sampling of artwork from among the gallery’s stock.
Priska Pasquer’s representation of European photography has enjoyed long-standing success. Previously employed for a number of years at Galerie Rudolf Kicken in Cologne, Ms. Pasquer has since launched out on her own as an art dealer and creative consultant in distinguished international collections. Her exclusive representation of such renowned photographers as El Lissitzky, Gustav Klucis and Heinz Hajek-Halke attests to the authentic caliber of her professional expertise over the years.
The opening of Galerie Priska Pasquer hallmarks its commitment to further enhance the preparation and presentation of photography of the 1920s, 1930s and 1950s. The gallery also plans to introduce an emphatic trend in photography by way of augmenting the prospective repertoire with select works of contemporary art as a rejoinder to the challenge occasioned by the departure of prominent galleries from the Rhineland to Berlin.
Approximately 70 vintage European and Japanese photographs of the 1920s and 1930s are represented in the opening exhibition. The centerpiece of the presentation consists of photomontages by El Lissitzky, including one of his most celebrated works, “The Constructor” (1924). “The Constructor”, which ranks as one of the most significant self-portraits in the 20th century, embodies “the struggle for artistic creativity by combining modern technology with the human intellect” (M. Tupitsyn). Particularly deserving of critical attention are the photomontages “Lenin’s Death Mask” and “Self-portrait” presented on the occasion of the 1928 Pressa Exhibition in Cologne.
Additional Soviet artists, such as Alexander Rodchenko, Gustav Klucis and Max Penson, whose works are also represented in the exhibition, capture in their photography dynamic scenes in public settings and tableaux of crowds, alongside more intimate evocations of the artists’ personal surroundings, as well as working prints and drafts for political posters.
Western European representatives of “New Photography”, who figure among the pioneers of the revolutionary forms of expression of the 1920s and 1930s and whose portraits, objectified forms and experimental photographs are featured in the exhibition, notably include Franz Roh, Umbo, Aenne Biermann and Heinz Hajek-Halke. Photographed stage sets and still lifes by the Italian Futurists Cesare Cerati, Renato di Bosso, Marisa Mori and Ivo Pannaggi round off the high spots of this premiere exhibition.
