160112: Kunsthalle Wien Vanity - Fashion/Photography from the F.C. Gundlach collection

Kunsthalle Wien Vanity - Fashion/Photography from the F.C. Gundlach collection 21.10.11 to 01.04.12 No Vanity, please! Is it the fashion now in photography that art takes the benefit, or much more, that it's that fashion that tends towards art? For F.C. Gundlach, erstwhile fashion photographer, gallery owner and above all, lobbyist in things pertaining to photography, the question – whether free or applied – is the same, "there is no commercial picture or non-commercial picture; there's only a good or a bad picture". And then there are exhibitions that have been going around for years in different constellations presenting a collection, and those where one isn't quite sure whether the choice of position can compete with the definite relevance of the theory. In a good compilation, one can have both phenomena at the same time – something that is presently possible in the Kunsthalle in Vienna. Gundlach himself, whose collection of fashion photography under the title, "Vanity", stretches from the late 20's to the present with shots from "Germany's next top model", approached the then-current art in the second half of the "sixties", quite decidedly with his own works. In black and white shots, the structure of the pictures was strictly geometric - the lovely Grace Coddington - today creative head of the American Vogue - poses on the coloured variation in front of colourful Roy Lichtenstein similar backgrounds as the saucy Uptown Girl. The collection of fashion photography is select, ranging from the classics such as Richard Avedon or Regina Relang to Erwin Blumenfeld, Wols or Horst P. Horst, Leon Levinstein, David Lachapelle and Melvin Sokolsky, who in the first half of the 60's let his models float around in huge bubbles through urban scenarios. However, Peter Weiermair's curated show "No Fashion, Please! Photography between Gender and Lifestyle", devotes itself to the view in the other direction in which artists take over the strategies of fashion photography and orchestrate bodies and their clothing. That may function wonderfully in positions by Fergus Greer, Matthias Herrmann, Izima Kaoru or Alex Prager. By some others, such as Tracy Baran, Bruce Weber or Brigitte Niedermaier it possibly plainly means something completely different – dressed or not. In the end, fashion is what one interprets it as: what one makes of it, even if it's only its temporary appearances. About vanity, in correlation with the Kunsthalle, you can read often enough. By Daniela Gregori The exhibition No fashion, please! Photography between Gender and Lifestyle runs until 29 January 2012 Kunsthalle Wien 1070 Vienna, Museumsplatz 1 Tel: +43(0)/ 1/ 521 89-0 Fax: +43(0)/ 1/ 521 89-0 http://www.kunsthallewien.at Opening hours: daily from 10-19 hours

Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville

160112

Kunsthalle Wien Museumsquartier
1070 Wien, Museumsplatz 1
Tel: +43 1 521 89-0
Email: office@kunsthallewien.at
http://www.kunsthallewien.at
Öffnungszeiten: Di-So 10-19, Do 11-21 h

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