Gotthard Schuh - Fundación Mapfre
Some would argue that Gotthard Schuh—a Swiss photographer who worked in the period between the two Great Wars—was a pioneer of what today is known as modern photojournalism: an approach that inserts the photographer as a subject in the story being reported. In Schuh's case, the overtly subjective gaze is the element that reveals the presence of the person behind the camera. His images are charged not solely with aesthetic preciosity but with an emotional element as well that elicits a poignant experience in the viewer. It is perhaps this combination of elements that places Schuh's work in the "poetic realism" category; a term generally applied to convey the trend in the French cinema of the same period that rendered real and fatalistic situations in a meticulous and beautiful manner.
Schuh finds beauty in tragedy, absurdity, perversion, weirdness, hate, love, in that which is forbidden or revealed through images that convey a certain distant intimacy. Outside the realm of reason, his ambiguous approach connects with viewers and moves them.
The Museo del Banco de la República in Bogota offers visitors until July 16 the opportunity to be fascinated by Gotthard Schuh's compelling images. The exhibition includes 113 photographs—taken between 1929 and 1956—from the archives of the Fotostiftung Schweiz (Swiss Foundation of Photography) in Winterthur, Switzerland, which conserves for Gotthard Schuh's artistic legacy. Another complementary exhibition will be presented at the same time that showcases 20 photographs by Robert Frank, Werner Bischof, Jakob Tuggener, and René Groebli, all members of the Kollegium of Swiss photographers working during the 1950s.
The exhibition is organized by the Fundación Mapfre, a non-profit Spanish institution created in 1975 with the objective of promoting culture, art, and literature, both in Spain and Latin America. The foundation has an active role in the education field and has become an important sponsor of international development, through cultural programs that organize activities in Spain and Latin America.
The branch of the foundation in charge of programming events, the Instituto Cultural was created in 1988. Directed by Pablo Gómez-Burillo, it offers a vast selection of events directed to both experts and the general public; through exhibitions, publications, and courses centered on the historic period that expands from the beginning of modern art to today. The Instituto has branches in Spain, Latin America, Europe, and the United States.
