Mural for a Photographer (Wandbild für einen Fotografen)
Date:
1925
Artist:
Franz Wilhelm Seiwert German, 1894-1933
About this artwork
Franz Wilhelm Seiwert painted Mural for a Photographer as a tribute to both the medium of photography and the photographer August Sander, the work’s first owner. Schematically depicting the operation of a large-format camera—from finding a subject to producing a black-andwhite print (seen at bottom right)—the painting draws parallels between photographic reproduction and the human life cycle.
Seiwert was a founding member of the Cologne Progressives, a group of artists who turned away from the total abstraction practiced by their contemporaries. Instead, they developed an easily legible and quasi-abstract style that all members of society could understand, regardless of their prior experience with art. Using unsentimental imagery to advance progressive social themes, the artists instilled painting with the democratic potential of photography.
Mural for a Photographer (Wandbild für einen Fotografen)
Place
Germany (Artist's nationality:)
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
Through prior bequest of Joseph Winterbotham; through prior gift of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel M. Nickerson
Reference Number
2021.179
Extended information about this artwork
Heinrich Hoerle, Walter Stern, and FW Seiwert, eds., a bis z, 6 (March 1930): n.p. (ill.).
Werner Lippert, Von Dadamax zum Grüngürtel: Köln in den 20er Jahren, exh. cat. (Köln: Der Verein, 1975), 93 (color ill.) (as Die Fotografie, 1930).
Knut Nievers and Gernot Thiele, Gottfried Brockmann: Bild und Überzeitlichkeit, exh. cat. (Osterfildern-Ruitt: G. Hatje, 1995), 165, cat. 174 (color ill.), 186.
Birgit Bernard, and others, Zeitgenoosen: August Sander und die Kunstszene der 20er Jahre im Rheinland, exh. cat. (Göttingen: Steidl, 2000), 133, cat. 145 (color ill.), 226.
Angela Lampe, ed., Allemagne, années 1920, nouvelle objectivité, August Sander, exh. cat. (Paris: Editions du Centre Pompidou, 2022), 38, 42-43 (color ill.), 307.
Noam M. Elcott, “Franz Wilhem Seiwert’s Wandbild für einen Fotografen [Mural for a Photographer], 1925” Artforum 64, no. 3 (November 2025): 140 (color ill.), 141, 143.
Kunstverein zur Frechen, Hoerle und sein Kreis, Dec. 1970–Jan. 1971, cat. 235.
Cologne Kunstverein, Von Dadamax zum Grüngürtel: Köln in den 20er Jahren, Mar. 15–May 11, 1975, no cat. no.
Kiel, Stadtgalerie im Sophienhof, Gottfried Brockmann: Bild und Überzeitlichkeit, Dec. 16, 1995–Mar. 3, 1996, cat. 174; Berlin, Haus am Waldsee, Mar. 16–Apr. 28, 1996.
Cologne, Josef-Haubrich-Kunsthalle, Zeitgenoosen: August Sander und die Kunstszene der 20er Jahre im Rheinland, May 19–July 30, 2000, cat. 510; Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Sept. 17–Nov. 12, 2000.
Cologne, Museum Ludwig, Painting as a Weapon: Progressive Cologne, 1920–33, Mar. 15–June 15, 2008, cat.22.
Valladolid, Spain, Passion Museum, The Cologne Progressives: August Sander and His Circle of Friends, 1920–1933, Nov. 30, 2012–Jan. 20, 2013, no cat. no.
Paris, Centre George Pompidou, Allemagne, années 1920, nouvelle objectivité, August Sander/Germany, 1920s, New Objectivity, August Sander, May 5–Sept. 2, 2022, no cat no.; Humlebæk, DK, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Oct. 13, 2022–Feb. 19, 2023 (Paris only).
The artist; August Sander, Cologne, 1925, by descent within the family; sold Grisebach, Berlin, June 10, 2021, lot 610, to the Art Institute of Chicago.
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