Hermann Claasen

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Cologne 1946/47, destroyed Altermarkt and ruins of Groß St. Martin

Hermann Claasen (born December 20, 1899 in Cologne , † December 19, 1987 there ) was a German photographer .

Life

Claasen's first photographs were taken before the First World War . To do this, he used a camera he had built himself from a cigar box and glasses. He acquired the photographic knowledge for this self-taught . After the parental business in which he worked suffered from the global economic crisis at the end of the 1920s , he earned his first income from photographs of the frozen Rhine in St. Goar. In the 1930s he worked as a portrait and advertising photographer, and the first color photographs were taken in the 1930s. In 1942 he married the Cologne-based photographer Ria Dietz.

plant

After the Second World War , Claasen became known for his photographs of ruins of destroyed Cologne. His oeuvre but includes evidenced by its extensive list of works far more. Before the First World War, Claasen was strongly influenced by the painterly examples of German photography. As a freelance photographer, he worked for many clients, which is why good examples of portraits and advertising are part of his estate.

In addition to his documentation of the destroyed Rhineland , Claasen consistently dealt with current trends in post-war photography , but also with advanced developments in modern art abroad and participated in many exhibitions.

The titles of the individual volumes in the catalog raisonné are: Trümmer, Experiment, Werbung, Portrait and Das Frühwerk. This five-volume presentation is the most comprehensive catalog raisonné by a German photographer. The variety and the quality of his photographic work identify him as one of the interesting German photographers of the past century.

literature

  • Singing in the fiery furnace. Cologne - remains of an old city. Düsseldorf, 1947 (1st edition)
  • Karl Ruhrberg (Ed.): Zeitzeichen. Stations in fine arts in North Rhine-Westphalia . DuMont, Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-7701-2314-X

Awards and honors

Exhibitions

Source: Goethe-Institut: Art Photography in Germany after 1945

Solo exhibitions

  • 1947: Tragedy of a City , exhibition of photographs of ruins
  • 1950: Photokina
  • 1995: Galerie ON, Cologne
  • 1999: Cologne City Museum, Cologne
  • 2003: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk
  • 2003: Galeria Helga de Alvear, Madrid

Joint exhibitions

  • 1997: German Photography - The Influence of a Medium 1870-1970, Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn
  • 2000: Moment and Finiteness, Museum Ludwig, Cologne
  • 2001: Aspects - From Art Photography at the Turn of the Century to Subjective Photography in the Fifties, Rathausgalerie, Brühl
  • 2002: Subjective photography, Saarlouis / Kuala Lumpur and others
  • 2003: Dreams and Conflicts, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice
  • 2003: Photographic diptychs, Edition Schellmann, Munich
  • 2003: Neo Rauch and European Contemporary Art, Ludwig Forum for International Art, Aachen
  • 2003: Berlin-Moscow Moscow-Berlin 1950-2000, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
  • 2003: Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin
  • 2003: Bonobos, Niels Borch Jensen, Berlin
  • 2004: Double exhibition with Brigitte March Stuttgart, Stuttgart

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Soénius, Ulrich S.,: Kölner Personen-Lexikon . Greven-Verl, 2008, ISBN 978-3-7743-0400-0 , p. 102 .
  2. ^ Goethe-Institut Singapore: Overview of Claasen's work with selected photographs ( Memento from June 14, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Claasen, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photographer
DATE OF BIRTH December 20, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH December 19, 1987
Place of death Cologne