Candida Höfer, Düsseldorf Exhibition, Museum Kunstpalast

Candida Höfer: Düsseldorf
Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
Through 9 February 2014 

For the first time, Museum Kunstpalast is showing an overview exhibition of CANDIDA HOFER, comprising approximately 70 works created exclusively in Dusseldorf in the course of 40 years. The presentation includes large-scale individual works, work groups, projections and an early film by the artist, which she shot jointly with Tony Morgan in the Düsseldorf ice cream parlour Da Forno in 1975. Most of the works have never been shown to the public.

Candida Höfer work is closely linked with the city of Düsseldorf. It was here where her first solo exhibition was staged in a gallery, and here she came across new and very different motifs time and again ever since she began to study with Bernd Becher at the Academy of Art. 

"Düsseldorf" stands for beginnings. But it is not only about the work of that time, "Düsseldorf" also shows th ways in which I work today. So it is about work back then and work today. It is about change -- Candida Höfer.

Candida Höfer’s oeuvre is characterised by cool objectivity, a keen interest in structures and order in public spaces, and by a precise grasp of details. Apart from large-scale interiors, such as the Düsseldorf Opera Deutsche Oper am Rhein and Schauspielhaus theatre, or the photographs of the interiors of a number of art institutions, such as Museum Kunstpalast or the Julia Stoschek Collection, the exhibition also shows pictures from her first photographic series Turks in Germany. 

As regards the development of Candida Höfer’s work, some of her recent works are illuminating, such as the pictures of the Neue Stahlhof, which point towards a new, more abstract direction. While in the past the artist most frequently revealed correlations in her pictures, she today concentrates on an individual object, such as a staircase, on which she put a spotlight.

While Candida Höfer initially chose a hand camera and accepted that blurring occurred, she today uses a digital large-format caméra, which requires long exposure times, but offers a wealth of image editing options. She takes décisions regarding the work's size, colours and choses whether it remains an individual picture or is integrated into a series.

Like Andreas Gursky, Axel Hütte, Tata Ronkholz or Thomas Struth, Candida Höfer is part of the internationally renowned "Dusseldorf School of Photography". Candida Höfer's large-format architectural photographs have been widely shown, including the documenta in Kassel, the Venice Biennial, and in numerous solo exhibitions in Europe, Asia and the USA.

Candida Höfer, who lives and works in Cologne, completed a traineeship in the renowned photographie studio Schmölz-Huth from 1963 until 1964 and subsequently studied artistic photography with Arno Jansen at the Kölner Werkschule until 1968. Having worked in Werner Bokelberg's photographie studio, she resumed studies in 1973 with Ole John in the film class of the Dusseldörf Academy of Art. Here, she subsequently studied with Bernd Becher from 1976 until 1982.

From 1997 until 2000 Candida Höfer was Professor of Photography at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe. She is member of the Freie Akademie der Künste Hamburg and of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts in Düsseldorf. 

Catalogue 

Accompagnying the exhibition, a comprehensive 192 pages catalogue in German and English is published by Richter|Fey Verlag, with contributions by Lothar Baumgarten, Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, Fanni Fetzer, Friedrich Wolfram Heubach, Candida Höfer, Gabriele Hofer-Hagenauer, Erika Krugel, Gunda Luyken, Michael Oppitz and Friedemann von Stockhausen. 

Special edition 

On occasion of the exhibition two photographs dated 2011 are released as a special edition: Benrather Schloss IV 2011 and Dreischeibenhaus Düsseldorf IV 2011. 

Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast 
Kulturzentrum Ehrenhof, Ehrenhof 4-5, 40479 Düsseldorf, Germany
www.smkp.de

Related Post: Candida Höfer at Galleria Borghese, Rome