”…for that which the ‘elite’ painters- Still, Rothko, Newman or Pollack- required monumental formats, is realized through the compression of pure painting into miniature format by Thomas Kemper…

Today the knowledge of the world depends greatly on the information about it found in the immaterial operations of its electronic communications. The immateriality and intensity that Mr. Kemper achieves with these paintings, through the material reduction of paint until a point is reached where pure spiritual potential takes over, generates an aesthetic figuration of the individual experience…”Andreas Steffens

Further information

Images from the exhibition

zone B opens its new exhibition space in Berlin as an affiliate of zone E (Essen).

Zone B will show three generations in its first exhibition and present the young history of contemporary photography as a continuum. Works from 18 artists are on view.

The majority of them are represented in renowned collections, including the Folkwang Museum, Essen, the States Galerie of Stuttgart, the Ludwig Museum, Cologne, the European Photography Museum, Paris, as well as the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum, New York. They are also recipients of numerous prestigious prizes and grants: Gosbert Adler received the Grant for Contemporary German Photography from the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach Foundation in 1982; Eva Bertram received the same Grant in 2007. Jitka Hanzlová was awarded the Otter-Steinert Prize of the German Society for Photography; Volker Heinze was given the Charles Pratt Memorial Award; Knut Wolfgang Maron received the Leopold Godowsky, Jr. Colour Photography Award and the 1st Prize at Fotosommer in Stuttgart. Also included in the exhibition are the artists Dolorès Marat, of Paris, with her Fresson prints that reference and develop upon the aesthetic of Edward Hopper, and Kenneth van Sickle, of New York, who came to photography after studying with George Grosz, worked with Robert Frank, and exhibited with Duane Michaels in New York and Paris.

The works from these artists are met with representatives from a younger generation: Heidi Schneekloth and Tim Kellner, have also both received awards and scholarships for their works, and are members of the young group of artists, “Absage and die Wirklichkeit”, together with Katrin Amft, Marc Grümmert, Thang Long, Janet Riedel and Janet Zeugner (www.absageandiewirklichkeit.de). Marc Grümmert is one of the innovative young artists of Germany, returning in his works the allegedly lost aura to both beings and objects. Janet Zeugner’s experimental works are unprecedented, sensual realizations.

HAUPTSTROM presents works that have at their foundation an opposition to documentary or other forms of photography that attempt to depict reality. The artists interpret their worlds in autonomous, narrative, metaphoric, and experimental ways. These subjective fragments of their worlds converge into a unified whole in the exhibition. The title HAUPTSTROM or “main current,” metaphorically describes this process. Diverse individual perspectives come together to form an integrated – and electrifying- current.

Different aesthetic temperaments and technical production methods all join in the “hauptstrom” as they align themselves with the traditions of the international avantgarde photography of the 20s and 30s and the “subjective photography” of the past century. Despite the diverse strategies and methods of production, the artists’ bypassing of and positioning against reality serve as a common, binding element. This exhibition is a multifaceted demonstration of an “alternative” photography, one that opposes the domination of “objective” photography, and the globalized civilization of mass media, and asserts instead a new and compelling aesthetic.

A catalogue, “Hauptstrom,” has been produced in conjunction with the exhibition.

Further information

Images from the exhibition