AUGUST SANDER. SARDINIA 1927

Please note: Due to the preparations for the exhibition “Au rendez-vous des amis”, the rooms in the area of classical modernism are gradually being closed. From 04.09. the rooms 1-15 are completely closed until 29.09.2020 and will be accessible again when the exhibition begins on 30.09.2020. From 21.09. until 28.09.2020, room 16 is closed in preparation for the collection presentation of new acquisitions by Hans Hoffmann. The exhibition "August Sander. Sardinia 1927" can be seen again from 22.09.2020. 

The Ann and Jürgen Wilde Foundation is showing a rare collection of vintage prints of photographs August Sander took during a trip to Italy in 1927. The show is a continuation of the long-running partnership between the Ann and Jürgen Wilde Foundation and the Collection of Photography and New Media at the Pinakothek der Moderne.  
 
August Sander (1876–1964) is one of the best-known photographers of the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) and New Vision (Neues Sehen) movements of the 1920s and 1930s. His seminal portfolio of contemporary portraiture Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts (People of the 20th Century) remains a landmark publication in the history of photography.
 
He published the photobook "Antlitz der Zeit" (Face of Our Time) in 1929 as a foretaste of "Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts" and the monumental sociological panorama he had planned. But few people now know that just before this time, before he became more widely known as a methodical portraitist of social typologies of Weimar-era Germany, Sander undertook a trip to Italy in 1927 with his friend, the writer and Italophile Ludwig Mathar (1882–1958). In the previous year, 1926, Mathar had released a book of travel writing, "Primavera. Frühlingsfahrten ins unbekannte Italien", and another book was now in the planning, this time about the remote island of Sardinia. In spring of 1927, the writer and the photographer spent several weeks roaming the isle, which, at the time, was still very much off the beaten track, shrouded in southern mystery, and carried a whiff of the exotic. Travelling by train and in postal-service vans, Sander and Mathar started in the capital, Cagliari, in the south, and wound their way northwards. They visited historical sites – such as churches and Bronze-Age nuraghi specific to the island – as well as remote villages and towns. Through a local painter and friend, Filippo Figari, they came into closer contact with members of the rural population and were able to experience religious practices and customs at first hand.

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.