Wilhelm Schürmann (photographer)

Wilhelm Schürmann (born 1946 in Dortmund ) is a German photographer , former photojournalist , later professor of photography. He is also an internationally recognized collector of contemporary art and a curator , running his own photo gallery in the 1970s when art photography was not yet widely accepted in Germany. He had solo exhibitions with his own works a. a. in Paris, Vienna, Salzburg, Bremen, Hanover, Cologne and Frankfurt am Main. Works by him can be found in the New York Museum of Modern Art , the Getty Museum , the Ludwig Collection and the Folkwang Museum .

Life

His parents ran a toy store in Dortmund- Lütgendortmund . He attended a humanistic grammar school in nearby Bochum . As a teenager, photography was his main occupation. However, since his parents and himself regarded life as an artist as having no business, he began studying chemistry at RWTH Aachen University after graduating from high school , which he completed in 1971. On the other hand, since he could not imagine giving up his time sovereignty for the position as a chemist in a corporation, he never worked as a chemist. Instead, he turned his hobby, photography, into a freelance profession by providing photos for the Aachener Zeitung and other press media. During his studies he had already participated in some competitions and won photography prizes.

At the end of 1973, he and his friend, photographer and economist Rudolf Kicken, opened their own “Photo Gallery Lichttropfen” on Kockerellstrasse in Aachen . Back then there was no market for photography art. The two pioneers by making the art of photography present to the museum curators in the first place. In 1975 they were at the Art Cologne art fair in Cologne for the first time, and then in 1976 for the first time at Art Basel . At the end of 1977 he left the gallery again because he discovered his own collector's mentality in himself .

From 1972 to 1976 he had a teaching position for photography at the Institute for Architecture at RWTH Aachen University . Although he was actually a chemist from his studies, he was given a teaching position again in 1979 in the design department of the Aachen University of Applied Sciences and from 1981 a real professorship for photography, which he held until his retirement in 2011. The starting point for this was the award of the City of Aachen's Artist Prize in 1978.

He already met his wife Gaby at high school in Bochum. She shares his passion for artistic images and is equally involved in the art collector activity. The couple lives in their own house in Herzogenrath - Kohlscheid near Aachen.

Works

Books

• Entropy at home = Entropy at home , texts: Wilhelm Schürmann and Roland Angst. Trad. Lucinda Rennison. Only Photography, Berlin 2014. ISBN 978-3-9816885-0-4 .
• Collector's Latin: from the world of pictures , Lindinger and Schmid, Regensburg 2004. ISBN 3-929970-62-7 .

literature

• Hans Scheurer (ed.): Cologne level / Wilhelm Schürmann , illustrated book. John, Cologne 1993. ISBN 3-88903-997-9 .
• Christian Philipp Müller (Ed.): Temporary translation (s): Schürmann Collection, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, 10.XII.1994 - 12.II.1995 . Ars Nicolai, Cologne 1994. ISBN 3-89479-067-9 .
• Pae White, Katharina Hegewisch (ed.): The end of the avant-garde: art as a service; Schürmann Collection; Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung , Munich, June 13 to August 13, 1995 . Richter, Düsseldorf 1995. ISBN 3-928762-33-8 .
• Julian Heynen (Ed.): She dreams of her favorite star. He speaks a foreign language: four rooms from the Schürmann Collection . K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen , Düsseldorf 2002. ISBN 3-7757-1186-4 .
• Doris Krystof (Ed.): I really do exist: four rooms from the Schürmann Collection. K21 Art Collection North Rhine-Westphalia, Düsseldorf 2003. ISBN 3-926154-65-9
• Regina Wyrwoll / Kunststiftung NRW (eds.): Klaus Honnef / Wilhelm Schürmann. König, Cologne 2009. ISBN 978-3-86560-723-2 .
• SK Stiftung Kultur (ed.): Wilhelm Schürmann: Signposts to happiness - pictures of a road 1979 - 1981 . Hatje Cantz , Ostfildern 2012. ISBN 978-3-7757-3309-0 .

Awards

• 1978: Art Prize of the City of Aachen
• 1980 and 1982: Photography Workshop and International Summer Academy of Fine Arts at Salzburg College
• 2003: German photo book award in silver for Wilhelm Schürmann: Signposts to happiness - pictures of a street 1979 - 1981 .
• 2020: ART COLOGNE Prize

Web links

Databases

• Literature by and about Wilhelm Schürmann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature by and about Wilhelm Schürmann (photographer) in the bibliographic database WorldCat

Content

• Photographer Wilhelm Schürmann: Germany, standardized , artist portrait in Die Zeit from September 2, 2013
• Interview “If you don't like it, feel back!” - Schürmann Collection in Dortmund , FAZ from April 17, 2001
• Profile Wilhelm Schürmann (* 1946) , Only Photography photo gallery
• Photo series "Pictures from Germany" by Wilhelm Schürmann in the Sprengel Museum Hannover , YouTube August 12, 2013
• The Physiognomy of the Home , Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation

supporting documents

1. ^ German photography since 1979 Raum auszeichen , Der Tagesspiegel from July 30, 2016, accessed October 1, 2016
2. ↑ In Germany: reloaded (II) , profifoto.de from May 2, 2016, accessed October 1, 2016
3. ^ The Wilde Gallery in Cologne and the Lichttropfen Gallery by Rudolf Kicken and Wilhelm Schürmann were the only commercial galleries. , fotogeschichte.info, accessed October 1, 2016
4. ↑ http://www.moma.org/artists/48389
5. ↑ Artist Wilhelm Schürmann , getty.edu, accessed October 1, 2016
6. ^ Full house at the end of the Franzen era , Aachener Zeitung from March 22, 2015, accessed October 1, 2016
7. ↑ Wilhelm Schürmann: Selected Solo Exhibitions & Public Collections ( Memento of the original from October 1, 2016 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. , Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica, accessed October 1, 2016 
8. ↑ ^{a b c d} Interview portrait Wilhelm Schürmann , WDR 5 table talk from September 7, 2016, accessed October 1, 2016
9. ↑ Wilhelm Schürmann Guide to Happiness - Pictures of a Street 1979-1981 , Hatje Cantz, accessed October 1, 2016
10. ↑ German Photo Book Award 2013 , forum-fotografie.info retrieved October 1, 2016
11. ↑ Kunstforum international on February 17, 2020: ART COLOGNE Prize 2020 for Gaby and Wilhelm Schürmann , accessed on February 18, 2020