Paul Outerbridge 1896 – 1958

Carbro Prints

EXHIBITION Jan 20 — Mar 16, 2001

Kicken II demonstrates the historical context of American color photography: the work of Paul Outerbridge is one of the great rediscoveries in the history of photography. His carbro prints are among the most exciting works early American color photography of the 1930s can offer. With Nude Standing at Dressing Table (1936) and Sandwiches on Tray (c. 1938) two works are exhibited that represent in very different ways the consequent aesthetic of Outerbridge: "Art is life seen through man's craving for perfection and beauty." (Paul. Outerbridge)

Complementary, at Kicken I the gallery exhibits the "fathers" of younger German photography, e.g. William Eggleston, Stephen Shore and Joel Meyerowitz. Until the 1970s, Walker Evan's remark "color photography is vulgar" was considered as indisputable. Serious photography had to be black and white: color photography, expensive to produce and not resistant to light, was left to advertising and journalism. This only changed at the beginning of the 1970s when American photographers no longer regarded color to have a decorative status, but as an independent means to represent everyday experience.