Werkstattporträt I, II, III (Complete - Including 154 Photographs by Albert Renger-Patzsch)
Arnsberg and Dortmund, Germany: Arbeitsgemeinschaft Gestaltendes Handwerk, 1961 – 1965. First edition. Hardcover. Duodecimo (6 1/8 x 8 1/2"). Unpaginated, app. 100 leaves each, three volumes. Original screw-bolted brown cloth with gray lettering on spines. Text printed to handmade paper in variant colors: black, brown, gray, blue, cream, yellow, green, burnt Sienna and umbra, photographs printed to glossy white paper. With lists of full and associate members of the workshop at front, printed in white on black paper.
Complete catalog of "Werkstattporträt (Workshop Portrait)" in three volumes, a joint venture of the Project Group Creative Crafts for the Districts of Arnsberg and Dortmund, Germany, from 1961 to 1965. Participants of this project included craftsmen and women from the fields of pottery, weaving, embroidery, bookbinding, lathe work, carpentry, photography, painting and sculpting. An extraordinary project presenting a state-of-the-art view of craftsmanship and art in Eastern Westfalia in the 1960s, illustrated with 309 b/w photographs.
Albert Renger-Patzsch participated in this project not only as a photographer, see portrait 10, but provided one-hundred and forty-five of the three hundred and eleven photographs of works of other participants, including portrait photographs, for the catalogs "Werkstattportrait." Renger-Patzsch had worked as press photographer for the Chicago Tribune before publishing his title 'Crassula" with the Auriga-Verlag in the series 'Die Welt der Planze' in 1924. He had his first museum exhibition in 1927. His second book "Die Welt ist schön" became his best-known publication. During the 1930s he remained in Germany and made photographs for the German industy and in advertising. His archive was destroyed during W.W.II. In 1944 he moved to Wamel, North Rhine-Westfalia, and lived there for the rest of his life.
The catalog is structured in twenty-nine chapters (0-27+1) introducing artists and craftsmen and women, including one introductory chapter with eight photographs and a final chapter with six photographs. The object of the project was to further the exchange of knowledge and experience, collaboration in research, shared leisure time and visits of the workshops and studios of participants. Regional and national exhibitions and publications were arranged to help find buyers for the created work. The introductory chapter includes lists of full members and associate members.
Each of the twenty-seven workshop portraits includes an introductory leaf for the respective participant, describing the workshop or studio and the career, including particulars about the techniques and material used by the artist, with captions on the objects captured in eight b/w offset reproductions of photographs by Albert Renger-Patzsch and others on verso. Each set of photographs includes a portrait of the respective artist. Following each set of photographs a page with contact information of the artist and photo-credits for the work displayed.
The final chapter is entitled "Workshop Portrait." It includes a brief description of the workshop taking place from April 1961 to December 1965, six b/w photographs of workshop exhibits and a list of all participants with contact information. The last page of this chapter, an address by Walter Römhildt, states the conclusion of this project and announces the continuation of publications of the series "werkstattforum" at his new office, the "Beratungsstelle für Handwerksform bei der Handwerkskammer Hannover." Participants of the project "werkstattportait" will automatically receive those publications.
Content with participating artists:
portrait 0: Introduction of the project with photos by Renger-Patzsch (9)
portrait 1: Hildegard Bäumer (weaver, Siegen) photos by Renger-Patzsch (6) and Foto-Besser, Siegen (3)
portrait 2: Ignatius Geitel (Glass painter, Bochum) with Klischees by Titze & Lorenz, Gelsenkirchen (9)
portrait 3: Karl Josef Hoffmann (sculptor, Attendorn) with photos by Renger-Patzsch (9)
portrait 4: Anneliese Kretschmer (photographer, Dortmund) photos by Anneliese Kretschmer (9)
portrait 5: Udo Dickerhoff (carpenter, Bochum) photos by Renger-Patzsch (8), Sabine Renger (1) and Christian Bathe, Münster (1); with two transparencies.
portrait 6: Ingeborg and Bruno Asshoff (potters, Bochum) photos by Renger-Patzsch (10) Dagmar Korn, Düsseldorf (2), and Helmut Hering, Dortmund (2)
portrait 7: Martha Wurm (embroider, Wattenscheid) photos by Photo-Soeding, J. Müller, Soest (11)
portrait 8: Otto Pickhan (turner, Mollseifen) photos by Renger-Patzsch (9)
portrait 9: Irmgard Timmermann (weaver, Soest) photos by Photo-Soeding, J. Müller, Soest (9), H. Musmann, Lage (1) and Renger-Patzsch (1)
portrait 10: Albert Renger-Patzsch (photographer, Wamel) photos by Sabine Renger, Wamel (1) Renger-Patzsch (11), Klischees by Titze & Lorenz, Gelsenkirchen;
portrait 11: Andrea Böhm (picture weaver, Lüdenscheid) w/o photo-credits (10)
portrait 12: Päule Jelich (goldsmith, Iserlohn) photos by Schmidt + Lueg, Iserlohn (11), and Foto Melchers, Herne (1)
portrait 13: Wolfgang Kruse (turner, Hamm) photos by Schmidt + Lueg, Iserlohn (10)
portrait 14: Wolfgang Kreutter (sculptor, Dödesberg) photos by Bert Brösel, Siegen (1), Heidersberger, Wolfsburg (2), Schmidt + Lueg, Iserlohn (9)
portrait 15: Marianne Proll (bookbinder, Hagen) photos by A. Bach, Hagen (6), Renger-Patzsch (8)
portrait 16: Heinz Abendroth (metal smith, Dortmund) photos by Rolf Schmieding, Dortmund (9), Dinstühler, Dortmund (1);
portrait 17: Liesel Bellmann (sculptor, Dortmund) photos by Gerd Schlitzer, Dortmund (4), W. von Frankenberg, Dortmund (1), Rolf Schmieding, Dortmund (3), and Heller, Telgte (1), w/o credit (3)
portrait 18: Karl Jlling (metal smith, Mallar) photos by Renger-Patzsch (10)
portrait 19:Dieter Pieper (goldsmith,Lüdenscheid) photos by Werkstätten Carl Golderer, Pforzheim (24)
portrait 20: Marieluise Quade (painter and graphic designer, Lüdenscheid) photos by Carl Huth, Lüdenscheid (2), w/o credits (7)
portrait 21: Waldemar Wien (sculptor, Kierape 1) photos by Renger-Patzsch (13)
portrait 22: Christel Humpert (potter, Bochum) photos by Renger-Patzsch(10)
portrait 23: W. K. A. Weisheit (carpenter, Plettenberg-Oesterau) photos by Renger-Patzsch (9)
portrait 24: Günter Hülshoff (potter) Rosemarie Hülshoff (batik, both Wangern) photos by Renger-Patzsch (14)
portrait 25: Josef Severin (metal smith, Anröchte/Krs. Lippstadt) photos by Renger-Patzsch (6) and Sabine Renger (4)
portrait 26: Gisela Lohse (weaver, Hagen) photos by Renger-Patzsch (11)
portrait 27: Johannes Scharfenstein (carpenter, Meschede) photos by Renger-Patzsch (10) and Foto-Zwietasch, Kornwestheim (1)
"werkstattportrait" with Klischees by Tietze & Lorenz, Gelsenkirchen (6)
Text in German. Minor wear overall with some red underlining of text in Römhildt address on last page. Near fine condition. Item #48080
Translation of werkstattportrait 10:
"Albert Renger-Patzsch, born on June 22m 1897, graduated at the Humanistic Gymnasium, studied chemistry until the preliminary examination, after that he became the head of the photography department of the Folkwang Publisher in Hagen and Darmstadt. Since 1925 independent photographer in Bad Harzburg; first exhibition at Kestner-Gesellschaft in Hannover in 1925; first publication: "Die Halligen" in 1927, worked from 1929–1944 in Essen, after that in Wamel near Soest. Following his title "Die Welt ist schön" he published monographs of cities and architecture, books on marked-off landscapes and other topics. Renger=Patzsch works are in the collections of the MOMA, New York, the Eastman House in Rochester, the Gernsheim Collection in London, the Copper-Engraving Collection of the National Library in Paris and the Photo-Museum in Dresden. He was awarded the David Octavius Hill Medal of the G.D.L. in 1957, the Culture-Award of the German Society for Photography Cologne in 1960, and the Golden Society Medal of the Vienna Photographic Society in 1961. Renger-Patzsch is seen as the father of "Neue Sachlichkeit" in photography. In his book "Die Welt ist schön" he introduces a program with the goal to deter photography from engaging in a race with painting and reflect on its own medium. His notion that photography, based on its mechanical structure, is better suited to do justice to an object, portrait it as an artistic individual, pertains to large fields of photography today."
Price: $8,750.00