| Anna and Bernhard Blume | |
| Field: | Art photography |
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Anna Blume (née Helming; 21 April 1936 18 June 2020) and Bernhard Johannes Blume (8 September 19371 September 2011) were German art photographers. They created sequences of large black-and-white photos of staged scenes in which they appeared themselves, with objects taking on a "life" of their own. Their works have been shown internationally in exhibitions and museums, including New York's MoMA. They are regarded as "among the pioneers of staged photography".
Born Anna Helming in Bork, Westphalia, Prussia, Germany, on 21 April 1936, she later described her childhood as happy. She studied art at the Staatliche Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf from 1960 to 1965, like her future husband. When they got married in 1966, she enjoyed having the same name as Kurt Schwitters' imaginary figure, Anna Blume. The couple lived and worked together in Cologne. She gave birth to twin girls in 1967. Until 1985 she worked as a crafts and arts teacher at a Gymnasium.
Anna Blume spent the last months of her life in Bork, her birthplace, living with her daughter Hedwig. She died on 18 June 2020 after a long illness at age 84.
Bernhard Johannes Blume was born in Dortmund, Westphalia, Prussia, Germany, in 1937. He studied art at the Staatliche Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf from 1960 to 1965, with Joseph Beuys among others. He studied philosophy at the University of Cologne from 1967 to 1970, and later worked as a teacher of art and philosophy. In 1984 he took part in the exhibition Von hier aus – Zwei Monate neue deutsche Kunst in Düsseldorf. Beginning in 1987 he was Professor für Freie Kunst und Visuelle Kommunikation (professor of free art and visual communication) at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg.
He died in Cologne on 1 September 2011.
Anna and Bernhard Blume together created installations, sequences of large photo scenes and, mostly in the 1990s, Polaroids. Both created drawings. They staged and photographed scenes in which they appeared themselves, with objects taking on a "life" of their own. According to the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, their process was to create their picture sequences together and complete all related tasks without outside help. That included designing the sets and costumes, developing the negatives, and producing enlargements; at each stage the artwork was refined, polished and painted. Anna said: "Wir malen mit der Kamera, und diese malerische Arbeit findet auch noch im Labor statt." (We paint with our camera, and this painterly work continues in the lab, too.) The images were produced without the aid of digital manipulation or post-production montages. Taking pictures of a "flying, crashing, and swirling world", the artists used safety features such as ropes, nets and mattresses.
Their sequence Vasenekstasen (Vase Extasy) was shown at the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt. In 1989 MoMA in New York presented their works in a solo show, including Küchenkoller (Kitchen Frenzy, 1986), Opposites D (1989) and Demonstrative Identification with the universe (1971).
In 2004, their Polaroids taken from 1988 to 2000 were published as a book, Das Glück ist ohne Pardon / Joy knows no mercy. They treated the genre of the artist's self-portrait to a transformation, distorting their faces with trivial objects such as coat hangers and household utensils, in order to "put to rest the myth of the portrait and the autonomy of the subject it seeks to convey."
Several works have been exhibited at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, which in 2005 showed Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross), a sequence from Transzendentaler Konstruktivismus (Transcendental Constructivism), in connection with the World Youth Day 2005 in Cologne. In 2008 Reine Vernunft (Pure Reason) was presented at the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin. It was their first comprehensive appearance in the capital. According to the museum, the works provide "an overview of the ironical and philosophical strategy of this artistic team" and show "intensive dedication to a continuous process of self-experimentation", with the Blumes having "performed groundwork on the nature of German existence" by investigating "'home sweet home' for every conceivable form of misery" rather than entering the wider world.
In 2009, their work appeared in the Berlin Gropiusbau at the exhibition "Sixty years. Sixty works", commemorating the 60th anniversary of the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2010, several works were shown at the Kunstmuseum Bonn in "Der Westen leuchtet / Eine Standortbestimmung der Kunstlandschaft des Rheinlandes" (The Luminous West / A site assessment of the art landscape in the Rhineland), presenting artists of the Rhineland.
In 2011, the first exhibition of their work after the death of Bernhard Blume, "Trans-Skulptur" in Berlin, was introduced by their friend Bazon Brock. He also spoke on 21 April 2016 at an exhibition Transcendental Constructivism of both artists at the Kolumba in Cologne, which showed their work in several rooms and ran from 2015 to 2016.
This list of titles and translations is based on the listing for Anna and Bernhard Blume by the Museums of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Exhibitions included: