A broad love of the world

Benjamin Katz, born in Antwerp in 1939 as the son of German Jews, rose to fame with his compelling portraits of artists such as Georg Baselitz, Jörg ­Immendorff, Josef Beuys, James Lee Byars, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter. Hardly any exhibition of the so-called German princely painters – Benjamin Katz has been associated with some of them for years – manages without his subtle portraits. But his archive of over half a million negatives from more than sixty years of photographic work still contains plenty of surprises: in addition to conceptual photo series, in particular everyday observations – landscapes, views with traces of industrial decline, architectural details, found objects of everyday poetry, and even the momen­-­t­arily absurd. There are many untold stories in the images, quite different connotations are called upon, the enigmatic wit of the artist invariably comes to the surface. The influences of early models, such as Brassaï, Rodchenko, or Cartier-Bresson, tend to reappear, yet Benjamin Katz’s images are primarily narratives with­out words, connected to humor as a worldly wisdom, and to eloquent elaborations in simple stories. It is with admiration that one can only follow the results of this work that, in concentrated observation, illumi­-n­ates rather incidental moments of life with brilliant acuity.

Ausstellung:
Marta Herford, 13/6 – 3/10/21