Candida Höfer

Candida Höfer on June 29, 2013 in the Zander gallery in Cologne

Candida Höfer (born February 4, 1944 in Eberswalde ) is a German photographer . She is considered to be the representative of the Düsseldorf School of Photography .

Life

Born in Eberswalde as the daughter of journalist Werner Höfer , Candida Höfer grew up in Cologne. From 1963 to 1964, Candida Höfer completed a traineeship at the renowned Schmölz-Huth photo studio in Cologne and then studied artistic photography with Arno Jansen at the Cologne factory schools until 1968 . After a short photographic practice in Hamburg and working in the Werner Bokelberg photo studio , she took up further studies in 1973 with Ole John in the film class at the Düsseldorf Art Academy . From 1976 on she was a student of Bernd Becher . In 1982 she finished her studies. From 1997 to 2000 she held a professorship for photography at the University of Design in Karlsruhe . She is a member of the Free Academy of the Arts Hamburg .

Candida Höfer is one of the most internationally recognized German photographers. In addition to Andreas Gursky , Thomas Struth , Thomas Ruff , Axel Hütte and others, she belongs to the group of Becher students who belong to the international avant-garde of today's photography . Höfer lives in Cologne.

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Höfer at the awarding of the Cologne Fine Art Prize 2015 next to her photo of the Cologne Opera House II

At the beginning of her artistic work, Candida Höfer still photographed people. For example, she created a documentary about Turkish migrants in Germany. She became known, however, with the photographs of interiors, with which she began in the 1980s. She created extensive series on public spaces such as libraries , lecture halls , concert and sports halls , cafes , museums, but also zoological gardens and other indoor spaces .

The absence of people is characteristic of the recordings. These appear here only as absent, as in the reality of the photographed rooms they are characteristic of their function. The rooms documented by Höfer are given their very own presence in their color photographs, which goes beyond the functional significance of the rooms. Ulf Erdmann Ziegler certified Candida Höfer's interiors in the Frankfurter Rundschau as “timeless and immovable”. In contrast to her teachers Bernd and Hilla Becher, also unlike Gursky and Struth, she initially did not use a large-format camera . In her current work, however, it does.

Candida Höfer took part in Documenta11 in Kassel in 2002 and, alongside Martin Kippenberger, represented Germany at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003. Since 2010 she has been a member of the Class of Arts at the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts .

Candida Höfer lives and works in Cologne .

Exhibitions

• 1982 Folkwang Museum , Essen
• 1984 Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn
• 1992 Hagener Kunstverein , Hagen; Municipal gallery Haus Seel , Siegen
• 1993 Hamburger Kunsthalle ; Leonhardi Museum , Dresden; Kunsthalle Bern , Switzerland
• 1994 Castello di Rivoli , Turin, Italy; New Aachen Art Association , Aachen
• 1995 Galerie Sonnabend , New York, USA
• 1998 Recklinghausen Art Association
• 1999 Kunsthalle Basel , Switzerland
• 2000 Palacio del Embarcadero , Santander, Spain; Kupferstichkabinett Dresden ; Nuremberg Art Gallery
• 2001 Musee des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle , Calais, France; Art gallery in Emden
• 2002 Kaiser Wilhelm Museum , Krefeld; Documenta11 , Kassel; Altonaer Museum , Hamburg
• 2004 Kunsthalle Kiel
• 2005 Norton Museum of Art , West Palm Beach, USA
• 2005 Kestnergesellschaft , Hanover
• 2007 New Museum Weimar
• 2008 ZKM Center for Art and Media Technology , Karlsruhe
• 2009 Museum Morsbroich , Leverkusen
• 2010 MARCO Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo , Spain
• 2012 North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts , Düsseldorf: House of Sciences, Düsseldorf 2012
• 2013 Galerie Zander , Cologne: early work

Group exhibition

• 2010: Ruhrblicke , Zeche Zollverein , Essen
• 2011: Kunsthalle Darmstadt goes to school , Kunsthalle Darmstadt
• 2017: Photographs become pictures. The mug class , Städel Museum , Frankfurt am Main

Awards and honors

• 1987: ars viva award from the culture group of the German economy in the BDI eV
• 2007: Finkenwerder Art Prize (for her life's work)
• 2015: Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class
• 2015: Cologne Fine Art Prize 2015

Publications

• Candida Höfer: Places years. Photographs 1968–1999. With texts by Anne Gant Führ-Trier, Barbara Hofmann, Ellen Seifermann and a foreword by Susanne Lange. Edited by the Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne. Schirmer Mosel, Munich / Paris / London 1999, ISBN 3-88814-578-3 .
• Candida Höfer: Libraries. With an essay by Umberto Eco . Schirmer Mosel, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-8296-0178-6 .
• Candida Höfer: Napoli. With a text by Angela Tecce. Translated by Sophia Marzolff. Schirmer Mosel, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-8296-0424-6 .
• Candida Höfer: Projects: Done. Edited by Markus Heinzelmann , Doreen Mende. König, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-86560-634-1 .
• Candida Höfer: Affinity - Affinities - Affiniteter. Edited by Frida Andersson, Anne Gant Führ-Trier. Schirmer Mosel, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-8296-0612-7 .
• Candida Höfer: Düsseldorf. Edited by Gunda Lyken, Beat Wismer . With contributions by Lothar Baumgarten , Benjamin HD Buchloh , Fanni Fetzer, Friedrich Wolfram Heubach , Candida Höfer, Gabriele Hofer-Hagenauer, Erika Krugel, Gunda Luyken, Michael Oppitz , Friedemann von Stockhausen . Richter & Fey, Düsseldorf 2013, ISBN 978-3-941263-56-7 .
• Candida Höfer, Rui Xavier: Silent Spaces. Edited by Uta Grosenick , Herbert Burkert. Distance, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-95476-116-6 .

Web links

Commons : Candida Höfer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Candida Höfer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Materials by and about Candida Höfer in the documenta archive
• Candida Höfer in the ifa database
• Candida Höfer at the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts
• Biography of Candida Höfer in the Wissen.de Lexicon

Individual evidence

1. ^ Biography of Candida Höfer on the homepage of Galerie Zander , accessed on February 24, 2019
2. ↑ Kulturkreis.eu: Well-known ars viva award winners / 1987 Candida Höfer ( memento of the original from October 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on August 13, 2015)  
3. ↑ Press release of the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia of May 27, 2015 (accessed on May 28, 2015)
4. ↑ Cologne Fine Art Prize 2015 goes to Candida Höfer ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , colognefineart.de (accessed on September 24, 2015)