John D. Schiff

John D. Schiff , until his emigration Hans Schiff (born November 7, 1907 in Cologne ; died September 17, 1976 in New York City ) was a German-American photographer . After the seizure of power by the Nazis, he was forced to give up his commercial activities. He worked as a freelance photographer for numerous Jewish institutions in Cologne. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II , he and his wife, the surgeon Trude Schiff-Löwenstein , managed to emigrate to London . In 1940 he went to New York , where he worked as a freelance photographer with artists, art dealers and museums until his death. In addition to his own portraits of numerous public figures, he specialized in reproductions of works of art.

Life

Hans Schiff was born as the only son of the Cologne-born Jewish merchant David Schiff and his wife Sophie, née Hammerschlag. After graduating from school, he completed a three-year apprenticeship at the Cologne company Leipziger & Co. and began his professional career as an accountant in his father's company, Schiff & Co , in 1925 . in Cologne, which specialized in the manufacture of calendars . In 1927 he received further training at the S. Lucas publishing house in Elberfeld . Through his friendship with Ernst Sander, the son of the photographer August Sander , he came into contact with photography and was one of Sander's students from the late 1920s.

After the National Socialists came to power, employment opportunities for Jews were systematically restricted. Hans Schiff worked alongside his work as a representative as a freelance photographer. In addition to taking photographs of architecture, he documented life in Jewish facilities and institutions in Cologne. He worked with the Kulturbund Deutscher Juden in Cologne, produced advertisements for Jewish institutions and documented in detail the work of the doctors and nursing staff in the Israelite Asylum and Hospital in Neuehrenfeld . Through his friendship with Erich Sander and the work for Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung , he came into contact with social democrats and communists , such as the Cologne SPD city councilor Robert Ransenberg , Eberhard Brünen and Karl Jannack .

On July 30, 1938, he applied for a visa for the United States at the American consulate in Stuttgart . On September 21, 1938, he married the surgeon Trude Löwenstein in Cologne-Sülz . On July 8, 1939, the couple emigrated to London on a temporary visa . While waiting for a visa to go to the United States, the couple were banned from work and had to go into debt with relatives to make a living.

In March 1940, Trude Schiff-Löwenstein and Hans Schiff received visas for the United States. After arriving in New York, he first worked as an employee in a photo studio, and shortly afterwards he founded his own photo studio. In New York, the couple worked tirelessly, despite the limited financial means, with the help of other emigrants such as Kurt Oster , to enable the Jews who remained in Germany to leave the country by issuing an affidavit . Among other things, her personal commitment to the rescue of the Jewish Ransenberg family from Cologne is known. Despite the necessary funds being deposited, the Ransenberg family were deported to the Riga ghetto and later murdered.

At the end of 1945, the Schiff couple received American citizenship . They both changed their first names: Trude added the middle name Joan, Hans Schiff became known in the United States under the name John D. Schiff . In New York he maintained contact with numerous emigrants, such as Josef Albers , Otto Klemperer , Albert Einstein , Walter Mehring and Ludwig Bemelmans , for whom he worked and made numerous portrait studies.

After the end of the Second World War , Trude and John Schiff supported friends in Germany with urgently needed food, clothing and medicines for several years. To support his teacher August Sander, he made contacts with curators in New York in 1948 .

Already during the war he began working with numerous influential art galleries and art collectors, such as Galerie Nierendorf , Herbert Arnot Inc., Hartveld Gallery, Central Picture Gallery and with Dikran Khan Kelekian , Richard Götz , Lionello Venturi and Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler .

Glance into the showroom
Marcel Duchamp , 1942
Photographer John Schiff
Whitelaw Reid Mansion, 451 Madison Avenue Link to the picture (please note copyrights )

In New York he documented numerous exhibitions and art installations for galleries and museums, such as the 1942 surrealist exhibition First Papers of Surrealism and Art in Process . His clients for photographic work included numerous painters and sculptors, such as Katherine Sophie Dreier , Marcel Duchamp , Fritz Glarner , Rafaello Busoni , Gaston Lachaise , Paul Jenkins and Louise Nevelson . He was particularly interested in the documentation of contemporary art and art installations and their protagonists. Among others, he portrayed the pop-art artists Claes Oldenburg , Andy Warhol and Marisol Escobar as well as the conceptual artist Sol LeWitt and the hard-edge painter Leon Polk Smith .

John and Trude Schiff themselves collected works by modern artists, including Morgan Russell , which they made available on several occasions as loans for special exhibitions from museums and galleries.

reception

A retrospective of the photographic work of John D. Schiff was shown in New York in 1983 and in the volume of Hans Schiff. Photographs. Published 1925-1965 .

Many of his photographs, especially portraits of famous people from contemporary history, achieve proceeds of several thousand euros at art auctions at large auction houses. Many art and photography museums show works by John D. Schiff in their permanent and temporary exhibitions, including the Museum of Modern Art , the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the British Museum .

Estate and Commemoration

The extensive estate of the couple Trude and Hans (John) Schiff is kept in the Leo Baeck Institute . In addition to the photographs from Germany, u. a. Several boxes with documents have been preserved for the Jüdischer Kulturbund Cologne, but also for numerous cityscapes, which document the lengthy efforts to emigrate from Germany to America in 1938. In addition, a large part of the Hans / John D. Schiff photo archive can be found in the estate.

Part of the exhibition Jüdisches Schicksal in Köln 1918–1945 , conceived by the Cologne NS Documentation Center in 1988, was dedicated to the fate of Trude Löwenstein and Hans Schiff and showed numerous original documents and photos from their creative days in Cologne and from emigration to the United States.

Works by Hans / John D. Schiff (selection)

Most of Hans Schiff's photographs of architecture and cities as well as private portraits have survived from his first creative period. After 1933 he documented Jewish life and institutions in Cologne. Shortly before emigrating, he made a photographic documentation of the work in the Jewish hospital, where his wife also worked. Similar to his teacher August Sander, he preferred to portray the lives of simple, working people.

In New York he worked with galleries and museums and made reproductions of works of art and exhibition documentation as well as photographs for catalogs, advertising brochures and business reports on their behalf. He also portrayed artists and people of contemporary history in his studio, but also in artist studios and at events.

The most famous pictures include black and white portraits of

portrait
Albert Einstein , 1950
Photographer John D. Schiff
Library of Congress, Photographs and Prints Division Link to the picture (please note copyrights )

• Albert Einstein
• Andy Warhol
• Pablo Picasso
• Mary McLeod Bethune
• Marcel Duchamp
• Fritz Glarner

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Barbara Becker-Jákli: The Jewish hospital in Cologne: the history of the Israelite asylum for the sick and the elderly from 1869 to 1945 . Emons, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-89705-350-0 , p. 16 f .
2. ↑ Barbara Becker-Jákli: The Jewish hospital in Cologne: the history of the Israelite asylum for the sick and the elderly from 1869 to 1945 . Emons, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-89705-350-0 , p. 472 f .
3. ^ Klaus Schmidt: mosaic stones . In: The daily newspaper: taz . November 4, 2004, ISSN  0931-9085 , p. 4 ( taz.de [accessed December 7, 2018]).
4. ^ ^{A b} Center for Jewish History: CJH Digital Collections: John (Hans) and Trude Schiff Collection, 1913–2001. Retrieved November 28, 2018 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Guide to the Papers of John (Hans) and Trude Schiff 1913-2001 AR 25082 / MF 1083. Retrieved December 7, 2018 . 
6. ^ Tate: Drawing in the Dark: Involuntary Drawing - Tate Papers. Retrieved December 14, 2018 (UK English). 
7. ^ Center for Jewish History: Trude and John (Hans) Schiff Digital Collections. Leo Baeck Institute, accessed December 7, 2018 . 
8. ^ John (Hans) and Trude Schiff Collection 1913–2001. (PDF) Leo Baeck Institute, accessed December 7, 2018 . 
9. ↑ John D. Schiff (1907–1976), Marcel Duchamp Sitting in Armchair, 1950s. Retrieved December 7, 2018 . 
10. ↑ AuctionArt | Duchamp Marcel. Ship John D. Retrieved December 7, 2018 . 
11. ^ Horst Matzerath : Jüdisches Schicksal in Köln, 1918–1945: Exhibition of the Historical Archives of the City of Cologne, NS Documentation Center: November 8, 1988 to January 22, 1989: in the Cologne City Museum, Alte Wache, Zeughausstrasse 1-3, 5000 Cologne 1 : [Catalog] . Ed .: Historical Archive of the City of Cologne, NS Documentation Center. Cologne 1988, p. 252 ff .
12. ↑ Wake up, damned of this earth - Founding of the Association of Worker Photographers in Germany VdAFD 90 years ago. Neue Rheinische Zeitung, accessed on December 7, 2018 . 
13. ^ Archives of American Art: John D. Schiff. Smithsonian, accessed December 14, 2018 . 
14. ↑ Albert Einstein by John D PHSchiff. Retrieved December 14, 2018 . 
15. ^ Andy Warhol by John D PHSchiff. Retrieved December 14, 2018 . 
16. ^ Portrait of Marcel Duchamp by John D PHSchiff. Retrieved December 14, 2018 . 
17. ^ Fritz Glarner, approx. 1960, from the Miscellaneous photographs collection. Retrieved December 14, 2018 . 

Web links

• artnet.de: John D. Schiff
• Leo Baeck Institute - Center for Jewish History: Guide to the Papers of John (Hans) and Trude Schiff 1913–2001