Albrecht Kunkel

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Albrecht Kunkel (born January 13, 1968 in Berlin ; † August 17, 2009 there ) was a German photographer and artist .

Life

Kunkel originally wanted to study political science, but then decided to train as a photographer at the Lette Association in Berlin. In 1990 he moved to Paris , where he worked as the first assistant to the fashion photographer Javier Vallhonrat . From 1993 he lived mainly in New York and, in addition to his work as a photo assistant, completed courses at the International Center of Photography .

An inheritance enabled him to look for new teachers. In 1995 he returned to Germany and began studying at the State University of Design in Karlsruhe in the class of Thomas Struth , whose tutor he became. In 1997/98 he studied for one year in Bernd Becher's class at the Düsseldorf Art Academy . He finished his studies at the University of the Arts Berlin with Katharina Sieverding in 2001 with the distinction of master class .

From 2001 he lived alternately in Berlin, Paris and New York, pursued his artistic projects and worked as a photographer for editorial offices in Europe and the USA such as for Die Zeit , for the magazines Numeró , Purple Fashion , L'Officiel , Big Magazine , for the Condé Nast Group , specifically for Architectural Digest .

Kunkel died at the age of 41.

plant

In addition to his work as a commercial and fashion photographer for commercial purposes, Albrecht Kunkel has been working on artistic projects since the 1990s. At the age of 25 he exhibited his first series of photos. In the beginning, his work focused on places where early artifacts of European-Christian / Jewish culture are visible. In addition, Kunkel dealt with the question of the extent to which photographic images can have an effect as evidence of cultural development. Kunkel later also applied this question to the present, whereby the westernized cultural area (Europe, USA) always remained his theme.

In the spirit of his teachers Thomas Struth and Bernd and Hilla Becher , Kunkel saw the task of a contemporary artist in documenting reality as objectively as possible. The subjective aspect of his way of working lay in the choice of motifs and the longstanding occupation with recurring topics.

In the 1990s, Kunkel was particularly interested in the origins of European culture and traveled to places where visible signs of bygone eras had been preserved, such as For example, the caves with prehistoric rock carvings in Lascaux, France, the stone fields with rock carvings in the Portuguese Côa Valley or the excavation field in Hisarlık , Turkey , where the remains of Troy are located.

From 2001 onwards, after a scholarship stay at the Chinati Foundation founded by Donald Judd in Marfa / Texas, he developed a great interest in American concept and minimal art of the 1960s and 1970s and began a 21-part group of works that took him to various living spaces. and places where artists such as Robert Smithson , Donald Judd and Dan Graham worked . He also photographed places and scenes that can be understood as symbols for contemporary culture: the pavilions of the Biennale di Venezia , the stock exchange on Wall Street , car races in Monte Carlo , the Cannes film festival and large football stadiums. Albrecht Kunkel's photographic work includes two documentations of the work of the Berlin dancer Janine Schneider.

reception

His recording of Tilda Swinton for the Zeit series “I have a dream” was shown at photokina in 2008 . Rémi Faucheux, editor of the photo book Clinic , described Kunkel's portraits, which depict the psychological transformation of girls up to motherhood, as his personal favorite pictures in the book. Works by Albrecht Kunkel are in the collections of the Center for Art and Media (ZKM), the photo department of the Berlinische Galerie , the Villa Schöningen (German-German Museum) in Potsdam and are privately owned.

In 2011, Kunkel's estate administrators offered a two-year doctoral scholarship to research his photographic oeuvre. Art historian and curator Jana Duda is doing her doctorate on Kunkel's estate.

Awards and grants

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

  • 1993: "Hai und Berge", Raab Galerie, Berlin
  • 1998: "Albrecht Kunkel", Thomas Rehbein, Cologne
  • 2008: "Transmission", Lempertz , Cologne and Berlin

posthumously

  • 2016: "Albrecht Kunkel: QUEST. Photographs 1989-2009 ”, ZKM Karlsruhe

Group exhibitions

posthumously

Exhibition catalogs

  • "Transmission", Lempertz, 2008

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Anne Jelena Schulte: Obituaries: Albrecht Kunkel (born 1968). , Tagesspiegel , December 4, 2009.
  2. ↑ a b Albrecht Kunkel. , ZKM Karlsruhe.
  3. ↑ a b ZEITmagazin: I have a dream. Edel, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-8419-0176-7 , p. 392, biographical entry p. 443 f.
  4. ↑ Silvie Rundel: temporary photography exhibition “I have a dream” at photokina in Cologne. , Die Zeit, September 23, 2008.
  5. ^ Clinic. Cabinet of Art & Medicine (via: Stéphane Velut; Marie-Christine Pouchelle: Clinic. Une exploration de l'univers médical à travers la photographie contemporaine. Images en maneuvers éd., Marseille 2008. ISBN 978-2-849-95130-9 )
  6. ↑ five high two. ZKM Karlsruhe, 2014, pt. 1.3.
  7. ↑ PhD scholarship from Albrecht Kunkel's estate , ArtHist , September 4, 2011
  8. ^ Finissage & artist talk: Ralf Schmerberg in conversation with Jana Duda. March 29, 2014.
  9. ↑ GASAG Art Prize, winners ( Memento from May 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ↑ a b Albrecht Kunkel. , Raab Gallery, Berlin.
  11. ↑ Albrecht Kunkel - "Transmission" ( Memento from May 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) , Lempertz, Cologne.
  12. ^ Die Weltkunst , Volume 63 (1993), p. 2948
  13. ↑ models and frames 4 - tia / this is america. Art Promotion Association Treptow eV, 2002.
  14. ↑ Jesse Alexander: The Medical Universe: Clinic - Open Eye Gallery 14th June - 1st August 2007 , Source Photographic Review, 52, Fall 2007
  15. ^ Young art from the Berlinische Galerie and GASAG by Blank & Jeron , 2010.
  16. ↑ 5.03. – 31.05.2010 Berlin Transfer: Young Art from the Berlinische Galerie and GASAG , Berlinische Galerie , review 2010
  17. ↑ Fünfhochzwei , art-in.de
personal data
SURNAME Kunkel, Albrecht
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photographer and artist
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 17th August 2009
Place of death Berlin