Bettina von Zwehl explained

Bettina von Zwehl (born 1971[1]) is a German artist who lives and works in London. She has centred her artistic practice on photography, installation and archival exploration evolving through artist-residencies in museums. Her work explores representations of the human condition and human concerns through an observational approach combined with a distinctive use of the profile view and silhouette that continues to underpin her practice.[2]

Career

Von Zwehl was born in Munich and studied in London, receiving a BA in Photography from the London College of Printing and an MA in Fine Art Photography from the Royal College of Art, London.[3]

She began making portraits as a student at the Royal College of Art, using a 19th-century methodology that she encountered as a photographer's assistant in Rome, working on 10inchesx8inchesin (xin) film with a large-plate camera.[4] Most of her work has been in the studio. Reviews of her early work often commented on its conceptual framing and the depiction of subjects in unusual physical or emotional circumstances, with an increased degree of vulnerability.[5] At the same time, she has also been interested in profile photography. Citing the influence of Renaissance painting, she calls the profile portrait "one of the most powerful ways of representing a person."[4]

In 2010 she was commissioned to take a series of outdoor portraits of athletes and paralympians preparing for the 2012 London Olympics.[6] Recently she has been invited to create works in reaction to the collections of several museums, including the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A),[4] the Holburne Museum[7] and the Freud Museum.[8] In 2014 she collaborated with her friend and fellow artist Sophy Rickett on a project reacting to an album from the Sir Benjamin Stone Archive at the Library of Birmingham.[9]

She was Artist in Residence for 6 months in 2011 at the V&A (2011)[4] and Artist in Residence for 5 months in 2013–2014 at the Freud Museum, where she created a permanent installation for the Anna Freud Room in response to the life and legacy of Anna Freud.[8] Made up Love Song (2011) is the result of the residency at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Von Zwehl explored the collection of portrait miniatures at the museum, creating a durational portrait in miniature in 34 parts of Sophia Birikorang, a member of the visitor experience team at the V&A.<ref>Web site: Bettina von Zwehl : Made up Love Song.

In 2013/14 she did a residency for The Freud Museum London producing permanent work for the Anna Freud Room in the Museum. Following her residency at the Museum she had a solo show Invitation to frequent the Shadows’ in 2016.[10] The publication Lament was published to coincide with the exhibition and co-authored by Josh Cohen.[11]

In 2018 von Zwehl was invited to be the first Artist-in-Residence at the New-York Historical Society. She received a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in 2017 and in 2018 she spent 6 weeks in New-York researching the collections and making new work: Meditations in an Emergency (2018),[12] a photographic series inspired by the teen protests following the tragedy at Stoneman Douglas High School[13] on Valentine’s Day 2018, and the collections of portrait silhouettes at the N-YHSM.

Wunderkammer (2020),[14] is a site-specific photography and mixed-media installation in response to a year long research period at the Renaissance Kunst- und Wunderkammer (Chamber of Art and Wonders) of Ferdinand II at Castle Ambras in Innsbruck Austria.

Publications

Monographs

Anthologies and group exhibition catalogues

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Collections

Von Zwehl's work is held in the following public collections:

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Union List of Artist Names Online. www.getty.edu.
  2. Web site: About .
  3. Web site: Resume: Bettina von Zwehl . www.purdyhicks.com . 2014-07-23.
  4. Web site: Photography Resident: Bettina von Zwehl. 3 January 2012. Victoria and Albert Museum. 2014-07-23.
  5. Web site: Smith. Roberta. Art in Review: Bettina von Zwehl. New York Times. 2014-08-01. September 15, 2000.
  6. Web site: Olympic exhibition opens at the National Portrait Gallery. The Guardian. 20 July 2010. 2014-07-23.
  7. Web site: Barron . Katy . Bettina Von Zwehl: Ruby's Room . www.photomonitor.co.uk . 2014-07-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140810041729/http://www.photomonitor.co.uk/2013/07/bettina-von-zwehl-rubys-room/ . 2014-08-10 . dead .
  8. Web site: Bettina Von Zwehl installation at the Freud Museum. www.darbyshire.uk.com. 2014-07-23.
  9. Web site: Padley. Gemma. Library of Birmingham opens its archive to photographers . British Journal of Photography . 2014-07-23. 1 May 2014.
  10. Web site: Bettina von Zwehl - Invitation to Frequent the Shadows.
  11. Web site: Lament.
  12. Web site: Meditations in an Emergency | New-York Historical Society.
  13. News: National School Walkout: Thousands Protest Against Gun Violence Across the U.S.. The New York Times. 14 March 2018. Yee. Vivian.
  14. Web site: Wunderkammer.
  15. News: Smith. Roberta. ART IN REVIEW; Bettina von Zwehl. New York Times. 2014-10-12. September 15, 2000.
  16. Web site: Bettina von Zwehl. Victoria Miro Gallery. https://web.archive.org/web/20141012224437/http://www.victoria-miro.com/exhibitions/235/ . 2014-10-12. live.
  17. Web site: Lombard Fried Projects. www.theartkey.com. 2014-10-12.
  18. Web site: Bettina von Zwehl Alina. www.likeyou.com. https://web.archive.org/web/20141012223226/http://old.likeyou.com/archives/bettina_v_zwehl_photo_04.htm. 2014-10-12. live.
  19. Web site: Past exhibitions and displays 2009. V&A Museum of Childhood. 2014-10-12. https://web.archive.org/web/20141018143737/http://www.museumofchildhood.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions-and-displays/past-exhibitions-and-displays/past-exhibitions-and-displays-2009. 2014-10-18. dead.
  20. Web site: Road to 2012: Setting Out. National Portrait Gallery. https://web.archive.org/web/20141012231024/http://www.npg.org.uk/about/press/road-to-2012-setting-out-press.php. 2014-10-12. 2010 . live.
  21. Web site: Made Up Love Song by Bettina von Zwehl - picture prevew. The Independent. https://web.archive.org/web/20120406024159/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/made-up-love-song-by-bettina-von-zwehl--picture-prevew-2365901.html. 2012-04-06. October 5, 2011. live.
  22. Web site: Bettina von Zwehl. Purdy Hicks. 2014-10-12.
  23. Web site: Album 31 - Sophy Rickett og Bettina von Zwehl. Fotogalleriet. 21 May 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160521164451/http://www.fotogalleriet.no/en/exhibitions/album-31-sophy-rickett-og-bettina-von-zwehl. 2016-05-21. live.
  24. Web site: Exhibition – Bettina von Zwehl. The Freud Museum. 21 May 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160521163252/https://www.freud.org.uk/exhibitions/76424/invitation-to-frequent-the-shadows/. 21 May 2016. dead.
  25. https://www.nyhistory.org/exhibitions/meditations-emergency
  26. Web site: Bettina von Zwehl WUNDERKAMMER.
  27. Web site: Facing History: Contemporary Portraiture. 24 July 2015. Victoria and Albert Museum. 21 May 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20150803044659/http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/f/facing-history-contemporary-portraiture. 2015-08-03 . live.
  28. Web site: 2020-12-29. Your Search Results. Victoria and Albert Museum.

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