Michael Schmidt
Grey as Colour
Photographs until 2009
May 21 - August 22, 2010
Press Viewing Hours Thursday, May 20, 2010, 11 am
With the exhibition of photographs by Michael Schmidt, the Haus der Kunst
presents another formative position in contemporary photography. Works by Bernd
and Hilla Becher, Robert Adams, Lee Friedlander, Andreas Gursky and William
Eggleston have already been shown as part of this exhibition series.
With 390 original photographs "Grey as Colour" is the most extensive overview of
Michael Schmidt's work to date. A third of the pieces are new works or - like
"89/90", which only existed as working proofs until now - have been edited as a
series for the exhibit.
On view will be the series Portraits (1970-74); Stadtlandschaft (Urban
Landscapes) (1974-75); Berlin Wedding (1976-78); Berlin Wedding. Menschen
(Berlin Wedding. People) (1977-78); Berlin, Stadtbilder (Berlin, Urban Images)
(1976-80); Innenaufnahmen (Interior Views) (1979-80); Berlin nach 45 (Berlin
after 45) (1980); Waffenruhe (Ceasefire) (1985-87); Selbst (Self) (1985-88);
89/90 (1989-90); Architektur (Architecture) (1989-91); Ein-heit (Un-ity)
(1991-94); Ihme-Zentrum (Ihme Center) (1997-98); Frauen (Women); (1997-99);
Irgendwo (Somewhere) (2001-04) and Meer (Sea) (2008-09). The series will not be
presented chronologically but in a network pattern.
Michael Schmidt has been taking photographs since 1965, analogue and in
black-and-white, and with an unusually broad range of grey tones. "For me black
and white are always the darkest grey and the lightest grey." (Michael Schmidt
1996). Micheal Schmidt's images lack all superficial attraction; they are
without incident and as far removed from the photographic concept of the
decisive moment as possible; they are neither striking nor narrative. For
decades Michael Schmidt has abstained from making composition samples that prove
to be exceptional single frame images. He prefers the series, in which the
artistic expression is not exhausted in the individual image, but in which one
image refers to another instead. In each of his series Michael Schmidt is
looking for a new point of entry, one that appears to be appropriate for the
specific subject matter. This includes the individually
designed
artist's book that accompanies the publication of a series. His unusual and
thorough production process has made Michael Schmidt an example for the younger
generation of photographers.
Until the 1990s Michael Schmidt mainly worked in the city in which he was born
in 1945: Berlin. The Wall, which characterized the city and divided her, became
a central focus for him in 1987 with his series "Waffenruhe" (Ceasefire). Since
the 1990s the radius of Michael Schmidt's activities has expanded: He
photographed in Hannover for his series "Frauen" (Women), and he then created
the work group "Irgendwo" (Somewhere), which resulted from journeys through the
German province. The newest works in the exhibition are views of the sea.
Portraits of people
People and urban landscapes are the two dominant motifs in the artist's work.
>From 1977-78 he created a series of double portraits that depict people both in
their place of work and at home; the formal principal of similar situations
suggest standardized behaviour: During working hours the portrayed individual
sits behind his desk and, in the evenings, on the sofa in his living room. From
punk to rocker, from the system analyst to the local politician, the childcare
worker or educational psychologist, from the social worker to the lawyer working
at the District Office in Wedding or the head of public relations at Schering AG
- they all take refuge in a similar position and their particular environment
imparts a certain sense of narrowness. The double portraits can be regarded as
both a succession of different ways of life, as if he was playing with different
identities, and as
self-questioning.
The portraits from the 1980s seem to be more spontaneous and to have been
created in an almost casual manner. The social and spatial contexts and
backgrounds are reduced to details, before which the individual can better
unfold. Yet, once again, viewers who look a bit closer sense that the portrayed
individuals experience a kind of homelessness in their social environments.
Michael Schmidt once described himself as a "photographer of dead ends". Beyond
the mere documentation of zeitgeist, fashion and milieu, the photographer's
images of people formulate the desire to blast open the behavioural patterns of
their surrounding environment.
Michael Schmidt will be represented at this year's Berlin Biennale with his
series "Frauen" (Women) (1997-99). This series' models stood in front of the
camera either clothed or naked and, without explicitly wishing to stage, attempt
to hold their own in the orchestration. Conscious of their exposed state, they
repeat a specific repertoire of poses and postures: They place their arms on
their hips or across their chests; push their hands in their pockets and turn
partially or completely away, revealing only a part of their body. The
photographer, though, declares his solidarity with the models' vulnerability and
their lack of practice and ease. The fragmentary perspective allows him to
emphasize individual characteristics, thereby measuring anew the distance
between such images and the standardized female portraits found in contemporary
glossy magazines.
Urban landscapes
For his photographs of urban landscapes Michael Schmidt often chooses in-between
places whose architecture is not specifically defined, spaces such as empty lots
or open areas. The individual images only provide a limited amount of
information about their structural contexts: A centrally placed obstacle impedes
a view into the space, or an empty area becomes the work's focus. The loading
ramps, parking spaces, bits of wall, corrugated iron walls, household supply
stores, bars with advertisements for Schultheiss beer, and even playgrounds for
children: all these places appear to be pieces of locationless utilitarian
architecture.
Certain series, for instance "Berlin-Wedding" from 1978, were regarded as
documentations of unsuccessful urban planning when they were first published -
as if Michael Schmidt wanted to accuse the wretchedness of the tenement blocks,
"with which one could kill people as with an axe", as Heinrich Zilles described
the "stony" Berlin. When viewed today, however, Michael Schmidt's images do not
convey such an explicit accusation but rather pose the question: What chance
does the individual have here? What does a successful way of life in this kind
of urban landscape look like? The spaces, areas and highlighted details in these
photographs are not a mere representation of reality: they also have the quality
of abstract paintings. They allow one to recognize the inwardly directed gaze of
the author, who is not just interested in objective documentation, but in the
development of an
unmistakable
individual style as well.
The German unification
In a solo exhibition in 1996 at the MoMA in New York, Michael Schmidt presented
the series "Ein-heit" (Un-ity) (1991-1994). The series - a collection of 118
individual images about the German reunification - included not just his own
works but also images he had found in magazines, newspapers and propaganda
material. In this way he connected individual memories with collective ones,
mixed images from East Berlin with ones from West Berlin. Because of an
intentional dearth of information provided by the individual image, it is once
again impossible to categorise them as belonging to a specific place, moment or
political system. Gymnasts forming ornaments, military parades, factory workers,
portraits of Göring, Adenauer and Honecker, they are all collectively resulting
in one big question: East and West, what was that anyway? The symbolism of
political systems and their image of people
seem
to be universally the same.
The exhibition is curated by Thomas Weski.
Supported by Bayerische Hausbau GmbH
"89/90" will be accompanied by an artist's book published by Snoeck Verlag; with
a text by Chris Dercon (English / German), 104 pages, 18,3 x 22,1 cm, and 48
photographs; 39.80 [UTF-8?]€, ISBN 978-3-940953-43-8
An artist's talk between Michael Schmidt and Kathrin Rhomberg, curator of the
6th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, will take place on Thursday, 1 July,
at 8 pm.
For images please visit our download area www.hausderkunst.de/presse/info.htm.
Kind regards,
Elena Heitsch and Sonja Zschunke
Haus der Kunst
Prinzregentenstraße 1
D 80538 München
Tel. +49 89 211 27-115
Fax +49 89 211 27-157
presse@hausderkunst.de
Handelsregister München
HRB 100018
USt-IdNr. DE
811612530