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August Sander: People of the Twentieth Century
A Photographic Portrait of Germany
May 25, 2004–September 19, 2004
Drawings, Prints, and Photographs Galleries and The Howard Gilman Gallery, 2nd floor
Though it was never fully realized or adequately understood, August Sander’s Menschen des 20 Jahrhunderts (People of the 20th Century) was intended as a comprehensive photographic index of the German population, classified into seven groups by social “type”: the Farmer; the Skilled Tradesman; the Woman; Classes and Professions; the Artists; the City; and the Last People. The Nazis confiscated his first publication of the work, but 1800 portraits—150 of which are now on view—made mostly in the 1920s and 1930s survive as well as Sander’s notes and plans for the project, which provided the basis for its reconstruction in book and exhibition form by the August Sander Archiv in Cologne. The uncompromising directness of Sander’s incisive portraits continues to influence artists today. The artistic context and wide influence of Sander’s “typological” approach to photography are explored in an installation of approximately 40 works simultaneously on view in the adjacent Howard Gilman Gallery.
Accompanied by a seven-volume publication.
The exhibition is made possible by members of the Museum's Visiting Committee for the Department of Photographs.
The exhibition was organized by Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne.
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