Karl Schenker

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Karl Schenker , also Karol Schenker (born October 23, 1886 in Sereth , Bukowina , Austria ; died August 18, 1954 in London ) was an Austrian photographer , illustrator of fashion magazines and painter . The Jewish artist, who mainly worked in Berlin , had to emigrate from Germany to London in 1938 and was granted British citizenship in 1948 .

In 2014, the Cologne Museum Ludwig was able to purchase around 100 photographs from the estate of the photographer Hermann Koczyk from Oschatz and dedicated a four-month retrospective to Karl Schenker in 2016 .

Life

Karl Schenker in aviator clothing (1919). Photo by Hermann Schieberth

Karol Schenker was born on October 23, 1886, the son of tax inspectors Jakob Schenker and Rosa Schenker (née Schleisberg). After the family moved to Lemberg (Austrian part of former Poland, today Ukraine ), Schenker became a member of the Friends of Artistic Photography around 1900 and has regularly participated in the association's exhibitions since 1904. At the age of 18, Karol Schenker exhibited his work at the International General Photography Exhibition for Amateur Photography in Krakow . He was awarded a silver medal in the amateur photography category.

It is believed that Schenker studied at the Lviv Technical University. Together with photographer Eduard Wasow, he ran a photo studio in Munich for a few months in 1910 , before moving to Berlin in 1911 and opening his own studio at Kurfürstendamm 29. Karl Schenker worked at that time for the Ullstein publishing house , who in his journal "The Lady" regularly photographs of him published . At the same time he made numerous portrait photographs for private individuals and artists. Karl Schenker regularly took part in national and international photography exhibitions, including in 1913 at the London Salon of Photography and in 1914 at the Cologne Werkbund exhibition . The Vienna- based photographers Madame d'Ora and Arthur Benda worked in his studio in 1913 , with whom he paid a working visit in Vienna in 1916. In the same year he began teaching in his studio and in the Berlin Lette Association . His students included the Dutch photographer Richard Polak and Toni Arens-Tepe.

On March 16, 1915, he married the Russian chemist Olga Labenskaja, whom he often portrayed in the following years. The couple went their separate ways after a few years.

Karl Schenker was one of the founding members of the Gesellschaft Deutscher Lichtbildner (GDL) founded in 1919 . For the Ufa films Bismarck and Fridericius Rex , he produced accompanying picture folders with portraits. In 1920 Schenker moved into a more comfortable studio at Kurfürstendamm 6. His old studio was taken over by the painter Jeanne Mammen , who lived and worked here until she died. In the early 1920s, Schenker took part in many renowned photography exhibitions, including the annual exhibitions of the Society of German Photographers, the Berlin Photography Exhibition and the German Trade Show in Munich . During this time he also portrayed Leni Riefenstahl , who was teaching at the Kurfürstendamm in the Helene Grimm-Reiter dance school. The portrait appeared on the cover of the magazine “Uhu” on October 1, 1924. Eleonore Feininger , the daughter of Lyonel Feininger and Clara Fürst, worked as a student at Schenker's studio from 1922 to 1924 .

In 1923 Schenker met Lilli Behrend, a Viennese woman, who he married a short time later while working on a commission. During these years Schenker concentrated on portrait and fashion photography. In 1925 the couple moved to New York and the photographer Mario von Bucovich took over Schenker's Berlin photo studio. In America, Karl Schenker mainly worked as a painter and draftsman again under his birth name Karol Schenker. At an exhibition dedicated to him in the Gainsborough Galleries, he showed a cycle of images that included portraits of Enrico Caruso , Giacomo Puccini and Gerhart Hauptmann .

In November 1930 the family returned to Berlin-Tiergarten and Schenker resumed work for the Ullstein publishing house. In addition to fashion photographs for the magazine »Die Dame«, he also published again in the monthly magazine »Uhu«. In 1932 he met Ruth Elisabeth Engel, who then worked as an employee in his studio.

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , the Ullstein publishing house was "Aryanised" and the magazine "Uhu" was discontinued in 1933. For Karl Schenker it became increasingly difficult to make a living in Berlin. Widowed in the meantime, he had to travel to London in order to be able to marry Ruth Engel on December 10, 1936, as this was no longer possible for the Jewish artist in Germany at that time. On February 15, 1938 Karl Schenker was because of "improper behavior in public (road) traffic" from the German Reich reported . The family emigrated to London, where in 1938 he opened a photo studio for fashion, portrait and color photography, retouching , drawing and advertising. His clients also included numerous celebrities in London, including the rally driver Jaqueline Evans and the Australian Prime Minister John Curtin .

On September 30, 1948, Karl Schenker was granted British citizenship. He died on August 18, 1954 in Putney Hospital in London in the London Borough of Wandsworth .

plant

Karl Schenker's early work consists mainly of portraits of women and photographs of actresses. The often retouched photographs were used by the artists' agencies as so-called star postcards and autograph cards . Among others, he portrayed Henny Porten , Fritzi Massary , Margit Barnay , Erna Morena , Wanda Treumann , Hansi Arnstädt , Lotte Neumann , Mia May , Dorit Weixler , Asta Nielsen and Lil Dagover as well as his first wife Olga. Sometimes he also photographed his customers' dogs . Schenker's drawings by the musician Jascha Heifetz and the composer Giacomo Puccini are shown today in the Art Gallery of Ontario . In the 1920s Schenker designed a collection of wax figure dolls, which he staged and photographed artistically as art and fashion figures.

In New York, Schenker devoted himself almost exclusively to portraiture. He drew mostly aristocrats , artists and society ladies as well as his second wife Lilly. After his return to Berlin, from 1930 onwards he devoted himself to staged fashion, advertising and portrait photography, which he described as photo directing work. He was booked by department stores, including the Nathan Israel department store and fashion journals, to create catalog and advertising photos. Even after his emigration to England he worked again as a portrait photographer and painter in London.

Exhibitions (selection)

  • International General Photography Exhibition of Amateur Photography, Krakow 1911, silver medal
  • International exhibition for portrait and figure painting, Hamburg 1911
  • General German Photographic Exhibition, Heidelberg 1912, Honorary Award
  • The London Salon of Photography , London 1913
  • German Werkbund Exhibition , Cologne 1914
  • Exhibition of artistic photography, Vienna 1920
  • Solo exhibition, Berlin 1920
  • Exhibition by the Society of German Photographers , Stuttgart 1920
  • Exhibition Berlin Photography, Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin 1921
  • Exhibition by the Society of German Photographers, Leipzig 1922
  • German Trade Show , Munich 1922
  • Exhibition by the Society of German Photographers, Madrid 1923
  • Exhibition by the Society of German Photographers, Weimar 1924
  • Exhibition photography as a work of art, Dresden 1924
  • L'arte nella fotografia , Turin, Milan, Rome 1924
  • Paintings and Drawings by Karol Schenker , solo exhibition Gainsborough Galleries, New York 1927
  • War Portraits , London 1942

Works (selection)

Writings by Karl Schenker (selection)

  • The new ways of portrait photography . In: »Die Dame« 43, 1/1915
  • Twelve portraits from the Cserépy film trilogy 'Fridericius Rex' , 1921
  • Twelve portraits from the film 'Bismarck' , 1925
  • '... I have pictures of myself ...!' Ten photographs from the life of a beautiful woman… A photographic joke , »Uhu« 8, 6/1932
  • Photo director , »Photographic«, 1935

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Master of Beauty - Karl Schenker's mundane imagery Master of Beauty - Karl Schenker's mundane imagery ( Memento from December 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Miriam Halwani: Karl Schenker rediscover . In: Karl Schenker's mundane imagery , ed. from Museum Ludwig, p. 10.
  3. ↑ Master of Beauty. Karl Schenker's sophisticated imagery , Museum Ludwig, Cologne, accessed on November 24, 2016. Master of Beauty - Karl Schenker's sophisticated imagery ( Memento from December 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g Miriam Halwani: Karl Schenkers Mondäne Bildwelten , ed. Museum Ludwig. Pp. 203-205.
  5. ↑ Miriam Halwani: Karl Schenker's Mondäne Bildwelten , ed. Museum Ludwig. P. 55.
  6. ^ Johanna Thal: Mannequins or wax dolls? In: »Die Dame« 52, 23/1925, pp. 6–9.
  7. ^ Eckhardt Kühn: Staged mannequins or puppets . In: »Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung«, 2013, p. 4.
  8. ↑ Karl Schenker in "Photo Director" (Kodak Aktiengesellschaft), 6/1935, p 1 ff.

literature

  • Joseph Roth : Karl Schenker exhibition . In: "Neue Berliner Zeitung", November 18, 1920
  • Fritz Stahl : Recordings by Karl Schenker . In: "German Art and Decoration", May 1922
  • Max Osborn : Karl Schenker, the painter and photographer . In: "German Art and Decoration", August 1924
  • Franz Blei : On Karl Schenker's wax figures . In: "German Art and Decoration", January 1926
  • Miriam Halwani (Ed.): Karl Schenker's mondäne Bildwelten , Walther König, Cologne 2016, ISBN 978-3-96098-020-9 . (Catalog for the exhibition in the Museum Ludwig Cologne, 2016)
  • Miriam Halwani: "... and that for God's sake my husband won't find out about it!". Karl Schenker: photographer of women . In: “Photo History” 37 (2017), Issue 143, pp. 19–26.
  • Karl Schenker: Fashion and cosmetics , calendars, photographs of the ullstein bild collection, 2016
  • Karl Schenker: Nude and portrait , calendar, photographs from the ullstein bild collection, 2016
  • Karl Schenker: The wax figures , calendars, photographs from the ullstein bild collection, 2016

Web links

Commons : Karl Schenker  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Schenker, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schenker, Karol
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British photographer, fashion magazine illustrator and painter
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Sereth , Bucovina , Austria
DATE OF DEATH August 18, 1954
Place of death London