February 13 through April 25, 1999
(More about the Busch-Reisinger Museum)

This exhibition of 1930s photographs by Wols will be the first presentation of this material in the United States. The German-French artist Wols, short for Wolfgang Schulze (1913-1951), rose to fame in the post-1945 European art scene as the founder of Informel painting. Previous European curators and scholars have thus presented Wols' photographs of the 1930s as anticipations of or studies for the later paintings.

By contrast, this exhibition and the accompanying catalogue will, for the first time, present the photographs as an independent, coherent body of work that resonates rather with European photographic practices in the twenties and thirties. Wols' photographs combine Bauhaus material studies and surrealist defamiliarizations of objects. Their central fascinating characteristic is the peculiar entwinement of an inspecting but at the same time alienated gaze, of a curious and repulsed attitude towards the world. Approximately thirty photographs will be lent from The Getty Museum for the exhibition, which will be supplemented by loans from European institutions and the artist's family.

RELATED EVENTS - All in 1999

Gallery talks
Gallery talks are free to the public with the price of Art Museums' admission. Admission is free on Wednesdays and Saturday mornings. Hearing assists are available for gallery talks; arrangements should be made beforehand by phoning (617) 495-8286. To request a sign language interpreter, the public should call (617) 495-2397 using Massachusetts Telephone Relay Service 1-800-439-2370, preferably three weeks in advance of the gallery talk.

Saturday, February 27, 11:30 a.m., Busch-Reisinger Museum
Graham Bader, Ph.D. candidate, Department of History of Art and Architecture.

Saturday, March 13, 11:30 a.m., Busch-Reisinger Museum
Christine Mehring, Ph.D. candidate, Department of History of Art and Architecture.

Sunday, March 14, 2:00 p.m., Busch-Reisinger Museum
Christine Mehring, Ph.D. candidate, Department of History of Art and Architecture.

Sunday, April 18, 2:00 p.m., Busch-Reisinger Museum
Graham Bader, Ph.D. candidate, Department of History of Art and Architecture.

Exhibition Catalogue
Wols Photographs will be accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue written by Christine Mehring. The catalogue will include an interpretive essay, an essay on the various printings and dating of Wols's photographs, an introduction to and translation of the 1932 text "The Photography of Wolfgang Schulz" by the Dutch cultural critic H. van Loon, an extensive bibliography, and a checklist of the exhibition. (Paper, approximately 112 pages, 68 black-and-white illustrations, $15). 

The exhibition is organized by Peter Nisbet, Daimler-Benz Curator, Busch-Reisinger Museum, and Christine Mehring, Ph.D. candidate, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University. Major funding for this exhibition and catalogue comes from the Friends of the Busch-Reisinger Museum/Verein der Freunde des Busch-Reisinger Museums e.V. Additional support was provided by the Louise E. Bettens Fund, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Jose Soriano Fund.

See also: Press Release and Exhibition Catalog.