PARALLEL GROWING. KARL BLOSSFELDT AND EVA-MARIA SCHÖN

Karl Blossfeldt (1865–1932) is considered one of the most important photographers of New Objectivity in the 1920s and 1930s. His photographs of plants document the wealth of shapes found in nature, as barely visible merely with the naked eye. Close-ups and extreme magnification shift the shapes of plants into the sphere of abstraction and make them appear like huge sculptures and architectural forms.  
The works of the Berlin artist Eva-Maria Schön (* 1948) straddle the fields of painting and photography. The eye, the hand and breath are among those instruments generating productive-orientated patterns of movement that, as micrographs, photograms or drawings, challenge the analyses of form. In some of her series Karl Blossfeldt’s photographs of plants form a central reference point for analytical-intuitive pictorial inventions.  
The exhibition includes works from the series ‘Paralleles Wachstum’ (Parallel Growing, since 2015) and ‘Unschärfe’ (Blurring, 2019) by Eva-Maria Schön in dialogue with a selection of large-format and multipartite working collages by Karl Blossfeldt. 

Under the title Collection+, the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungene (Bavarian State Painting Collections) in the Pinakothek der Moderne will be presenting studio exhibitions within the context of the collection. Presentations of new acquisitions, loans and artist rooms reveal the laborious work involved in gathering, maintaining and researching the collections, shining a light on the scholarly investigations into them and their contemporary relevance.