Proboscis knot: "Untitled (Two Elephants)" by Friedrich Seidenstücker. © Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen (Bavarian State Painting Collections)
The Modern Art Collection in Munich's Pinakothek der Moderne shows Friedrich Seidenstücker's photographic art. Our exhibition tip!
Anyone can take pictures these days. Think! Technology alone doesn't do it. What counts is the feeling for the right moment. If you know when you have to click so that it clicks for the viewer, you will succeed in taking a snapshot. Friedrich Seidenstücker (1882-1966) was a master at this. Because he was also a master of observation. Yet another prerequisite for not just creating random depictions of reality, but at the same time capturing the mood that is in the air. Also: an attitude to life, a social climate. Or, in the case of portraits, in addition to the individual fates, the milieu in which they take place.
There you look: "Walruses" (1932), photographed by Friedrich Seidenstücker in the Berlin Zoological Garden. © Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen (Bavarian State Painting Collections)
And because Seidenstücker chooses his motifs with so much wit and empathy, love of people and animals (!), looking at the approximately 100 photographs of him that can now be seen in the Modern Art Collection is first and foremost great fun. Especially the last of the three exhibition rooms. Here, curator Simone Förster presents the treasures that were probably also the artist's favorites. According to the legend he spread himself, he is said to have moved from Unna in North Rhine-Westphalia to the capital in 1904 in order to be able to go to the Berlin Zoo regularly.
There he draws rhinos, hippos, elephants and all the other animals that fascinate him so much. He enrolls in sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts, but it doesn't last long. Two years later, he dropped out. In the meantime, however, he continues to take secret photographs in the zoo, which he has begun. After the First World War, he also resumed his studies in sculpture and completed it in 1923. Probably even greater success for him personally this year: He finally, finally, receives the long-awaited official photography permit from the Berlin Zoological Garden. He will become one of his best-known photographers.
In spite of everything: A boy in his deceased dad's trousers (ca. 1950). © Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen (Bavarian State Painting Collections)
Simone Förster is head of the Ann and Jürgen Wilde Collection, which has been affiliated with the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen since 2010 and to which, among other things, 200 silk pieces are to be thanked in its holdings. The special thing about it, in addition to the enchanting animal pictures, are those of the people in the city. With his small camera, Seidenstücker strolls through the streets of gray pre- and post-war Berlin. And manages to bring this time and this big city to life immediately. Fractions of a second, captured in negative format nine by twelve centimeters, which tell it all. The boy, for example, who is grinning so happily from a pair of trousers that are much too big, which he has pulled over his shoulders. Again: at first glance a cute snapshot. The title of the photo reveals the whole truth: "In his father's estate" (ca. 1950). Dad is no longer alive. Like so many fathers whose wives and children waited in vain for their return from the war.
Surfaced: "Gloss Layers" (1925). © Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen (Bavarian State Painting Collections)
But these are not pictures of consternation. They are documentaries bursting with truthfulness of how strong man is. How he confronts fate, again and again a "in spite of everything". The ladies who jump courageously over the large puddles in front of the Zoological Garden; the boy who makes a kite out of an old paper bag; or the workers who escape the drudgery by jumping into the Wannsee. On the weekend, before "work again, everyday life again, week again" begins on Monday. That's what Robert Siodmak's silent film "Menschen am Sonntag" (1930) says. Seidenstücker's images seem like a continuation of the film. On June 1, 2023, starting at 19 p.m., Siodmak's work will be shown at the Munich Film Museum. First to the exhibition, then there. Busy. Until 24 September 2023 in the Sammlung Moderne Kunst, Pinakothek der Moderne (rooms 22-24); daily (except Monday) 10 a.m. to 18 p.m., Thursday until 20 p.m.