Interwar photomania
Yonna Yapou reviews a dazzling overview of European avant-garde photography between the wars.
Yonna Yapou, Sunday, 22nd June 2008
The hefty catalogue is not for the faint of heart. Apart from the curator’s densely written chapters it includes artists’ biographies by several authors and a vast bibliography with helpful translations into English of the largely foreign-language titles. There is no checklist as such, only a red number under the exhibited items indicating the catalogue number and captions, in extremely small type, almost hidden on an opposite page, making identification difficult. Witkovsky has made available much that has been unknown outside the former central Europe. The uninitiated reader, of whom there are presumably many, may need persistence and other background reading to comprehend fully what has been presented here.
Yonna Yapou was curator of paintings at the Israel Museum for 15 years.
‘Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945’, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 10 June-3 September 2007; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 5 October 2007-2 January; Milwaukee Art Museum, 9 February-4 May; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, 7 June-31 August (+44 [0]131 332 2266). Catalogue by Matthew Witkovsky, ISBN 9780500543375 (cloth), $60/£32 (National Gallery of Art/Thames & Hudson).
1 Metropolis by Paul Citroen (1896-1983), 1923. Photomontage, 76.1 x 58.4 cm. Prentenkabinet, University Library, Leiden
2 Shepherd with His Dogs by Rudolf Balogh (1879-1944), c. 1930. Gelatin silver print, 18.4 x 29 cm. Hungarian Museum of Photography
3 Abstract Photograph by Jaromír Funke (1896-1945), 1927-29. Gelatin silver print, 23.5 x 28.7 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Patrons’ Permanent Fund
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