Untitled (Carousel)
1900
Courtesy of Berlinische Galerie – Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur
HEINRICH ZILLE
Berlin Funfair
Fun, cheerful and crazy: the Berlin fairs of the years around 1900 provided entertainment. to the inhabitants of a rapidly expanding and industrialising city, offering a chance to escape from the reality of exhausting and often repetitive work. Heinrich Zille (1858-1929), well known as an illustrator and graphic artist, took his photographs in the heart of this whirlwind of attractions: the fairground rides glittering with lights and colours, the suspended rafters, the facades of the theatres plastered with posters, the rubbish, the carriages of the carnies outside the fairgrounds. It was not until 1966, 37 years after his death, that a collection of vintage prints and glass negatives was discovered in his old Berlin-Charlottenburg flat. His photographs, hitherto completely unknown, began to garner attention at home and internationally. In 1988-1989 the photographer Michael Schmidt made enlargements from 336 glass negatives—the photographs in this exhibition—and Zille’s artistic originality was fully revealed.
Exhibition realized in collaboration with Berlinische Galerie – Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur
Curated by Katia Reich and Francesco Zanot
Location
Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna / Casa Saraceni
Via Farini, 15
OPENING HOURS
TUESDAY–SUNDAY, 10AM–7PM
BIOGRAPHY
Heinrich Zille was born in 1858 in Radeburg, not far from Dresden (Germany). In 1867 his family moved to Berlin where he started an apprenticeship as a lithographer. At the end of the century he portrayed Berlin daily life in drawings and caricatures that are now considered historic documents attesting the social and cultural environment in Germany at the turn of the century. In 1903 he joined the Berliner Secession and until 1907 was employed by the ‘Photographic Society’, where he was able to use the society’s cameras and the equipment in its photography laboratories. Zille’s photographic activity ceased when he was dismissed. Only in 1966, 37 years after his death, a mixed lot of vintage prints and glass negatives was discovered in his former apartment: from the mid-1970s his previously unknown photographic oeuvre gained international attention. An important factor in this was the catalogue of works compiled by Enno Kaufhold and its accompanying, touring exhibition “Heinrich Zille: Photographer of the Modern”.
Untitled (Carousel)
1900
Courtesy of Berlinische Galerie – Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur
Location
Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna / Casa Saraceni
Via Farini, 15
OPENING HOURS
TUESDAY–SUNDAY, 10AM–7PM
Casa Saraceni was built in the early sixteenth century. It is amongst one of the most interesting buildings of the Renaissance period in Bologna and is distinguished by the design of the facade that combines the solid tradition of Bologna with the innovative Florentine architectural language. Historic residence of the noble Saraceni family, today it is an exhibition space that hosts temporary exhibitions, as well as being home to the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna.
