Paul Dobe: Photographische Naturstudien und Formfindung

The painter and plant illustrator Paul Dobe (1880-1965)

Paul Dobe's plant photographs had been forgotten for a long time until they were brought back into the public eye by a chance discovery in connection with research into the Folkwang-Auriga publishing house. The art historian Rainer Stamm is responsible for this, having collected a partial photographic bundle of Dobe's works and made them available to the Photographic Collection/SK Stiftung Kultur on permanent loan. What is particularly striking about Paul Dobe's photographs is his systematic approach. In a scientific-documentary manner, he circles his subject: the native plant world, derives types and principles of construction and, in all of this, is in search of an underlying law of form. It is possible to speak of a serial comparison, which places Paul Dobe's approach in the neighbourhood of pioneering figures in art history such as Karl Blossfeldt, August Sander and Bernd and Hilla Becher - all central positions in the holdings of the Photographic Collection/SK Stiftung Kultur. In addition to the depictions of plants, the publication also includes Paul Dobes' photographs of various cloud formations.

Exhibition:
The Photographic Collection/SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne, 2/3-8/7/2018