Erika Kiffl

Erika Kiffl (born December 19, 1939 in Karlsbad ( Czech Republic )) is a German photographer who is best known for her artist portraits. Even before the famous “Becher School” in Düsseldorf ( Bernd and Hilla Becher , Andreas Gursky , Thomas Ruff ) she questioned the differences between documentary and artistic photography.

life and work

Kiffl studied commercial graphics and photography at the Krefeld University of Applied Sciences and at the Düsseldorf Art Academy . She has lived in Düsseldorf since 1951. With her own photo reports, she worked as an art director for a leading fashion magazine. She was also the initiator of the International Symposium, which took place for the first time in 1980 at Mickeln Castle near Düsseldorf. Erika Kiffl is considered to be one of the leading photographers of German contemporary art and a chronicler of the art scene, whose work has been collected in the archive of artistic photography of the Rhenish art scene (AFORK) in the Düsseldorf museum kunst palast , which has existed since 2003 . In 2017, the state capital Düsseldorf, with the support of the Kunststiftung NRW, acquired the entire photographic archive of the Düsseldorf photo artist (around 9,000 photo negatives).

She photographed u. a. Sandro Antal , Joseph Beuys , Horst Gläsker , Gotthard Graubner , Erwin Heerich , Martin Honert , Halina Jaworski , Konrad Klapheck , Axel Klepsch, Milan Kunc , Anna Löbner, Markus Lüpertz , Ladislav Minarik, Gerhard Richter , Fernand Roda, Ulrike Rosenbach , Bettina Scheidulin , Richard Serra , Thomas Stricker, Günther Uecker and Isolde Wawrin .

In the open-air exhibition Work in Process , the photographer showed twenty large-format photographic works with portraits of important artists such as Gerhard Richter, Joseph Beuys and Günther Uecker from July 1 to August 31, 2009 on the banks of the Rhine in Düsseldorf. Her work can be found in numerous public collections.

Exhibitions (selection)

1978: Staatsgalerie Stuttgart , Stuttgart
1980: artist in her studio . Studio of the Kunsthalle Kiel , Kiel
1984: Kulturhaus Graz, Graz
1985: Goethe-Institut, Tel Aviv
1991: University of the Arts, Leipzig
1993: City Museum Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf
1995: Treibhaus 1 2 3 4 5 6: a photo documentation by Erika Kiffl , Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf , Düsseldorf
2003: Benjamin Katz, Erika Kiffl, Manfred Leve . Archive of artistic photography of the Rhenish art scene. Hete Hünermann Gallery, Düsseldorf
2009: Open-air exhibition on the Rhine: "Erika Kiffl - Work in Process" , Düsseldorf

Works

Artist in her studio . A photo documentation. With texts by artists and their critics and a foreword by Jörg Krichbaum. / ed. by Gabriele Forberg. - Mahnert-Lueg, Munich 1979. ISBN 3-922170-02-1
Room sequences . With an introductory text by Helmut Heißenbüttel . - Mahnert-Lueg, Munich 1980. ISBN 3-922170-17-X
Is photography art? Does photography belong in a museum? Lectures, discussions, interviews, sample pictures. International Photo Symposium 1981, Mickeln Castle near Düsseldorf. With contributions by A. Auer u. a. / ed. by Erika Kiffl. - Mahnert-Lueg, Munich 1982. ISBN 3-922170-25-0
Erika Kiffl - Photos. Tours 1979–1989 / ed. from the Art Academy Düsseldorf. - Düsseldorf 1990.
Inside The Studio: Erika Kiffl photographs Gerhard Richter . / ed. by Renate Buschmann and Daniel Marzona. - DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 2008. ISBN 978-3-8321-9051-4
Photos write art history / ed. by Stephan von Wiese u. Renate Buschmann. Cologne 2007. ISBN 3-8321-9058-9

Erika Kiffl. Photography 1964 - 2014 / ed. by Daniel Marzona. Distance Verlag Berlin 2014. ISBN 978-3-95476-061-9

literature

Josef Weinmann (Hrsg.): Egerländer Biographical Lexicon . Volume 1. Verlagsgesellschaft Druckhaus Bayreuth, Bayreuth 1958, ISBN 3-922808-12-3

Individual evidence

↑ Acquisition of the archive

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Kiffl, Erika
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German photographer
DATE OF BIRTH	December 19, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH	Karlovy Vary , Czech Republic

[1] Acquisition of the archive