Josef Breitenbach
Encyclopedia
Josef Breitenbach was a photographer whose manipulated images and stark photographs were part of the Surrealistic
movement.
In 1932, after several unsuccessful years at the head of the family business—during which period he was mainly engaged with perfecting his use of a camera—Breitenbach opened his first photographic studio. His clients were prominent members of Munich’s bohemia, including actors and actresses performing in the Munich theater. Munich was a stronghold of libertarians and refined peoples, whose spirit Breitenbach captured in theatrical portraits of his friend, the journalist Theo Riegler. This world vanished in 1933 with Hitler’s takeover.
The Surrealist “revolution” had by then become dominant in the Parisian art scene. Soon after his arrival, Breitenbach came into contact with André Breton and his circle. Preferring to retain his independence, he never became a member of the Surrealist group, but did show work in important exhibitions of Surrealist photography alongside Man Ray, Jacques-André Boiffard, Brassaï, Eli Lotar, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Roger Parry.
Breitenbach only lived in Paris for six years, until the war broke out in 1939. Yet during this period, he produced some of his most inventive work. He adopted several techniques favored by new photographers such as superimpression, montage, solarization, printing in negative, and the photogram. More importantly, he was one of the rare artists of the pre-War years to produce color photographs. Examples are the images Montparnasse, Portrait of a Woman in Black and Red, and Forever and Ever. However, these prints are not in color, but colors, using processes of bleaching, toning, and pigment.
Also during his years in Paris, he was an active member of the German exile community, which alerted the democratic world to the threat of fascism. A high point for Breitenbach was his collaboration with Bertolt Brecht, summarized by portraits of the playwright. The war interrupted this second chapter of the photographer’s life. Interned by the French as a suspicious alien, then drafted into a civilian corps composed of foreigners, Breitenbach eventually escaped to New York from Marseille in 1941.
The 1950s and 1960s were years of intense activity for Breitenbach. He did photographic reportage in Asia for the United Nations and other varied businesses, documenting relief work. He exhibited his photographs extensively in Europe in the 1930s (especially in Paris) and in the United States from the 1940s to the mid-1960s, including at the Museum of Modern Art
and the Metropolitan Museum of Art
. The time not spent on the road was spent absorbed by his teaching at Cooper Union and The New School.
Dryansky, Larisa. Josef Breitenbach. Paris: les Éditions de l'Amateur and musée Nicéphonre Niépce, 2001. Print.
Dryansky, Larisa. Josef Breitenbach Manifesto. Portland: Nazraeli Press LLC, 2008. Print
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
movement.
Early life
Josef Breitenhach was born into a middle-class wine-merchant family of Jewish descent, and came of age during the chaotic years of the First World War and its troubled aftermath. He attended technical high school from 1912–15 and trained as a salesman for an instrument firm and later as a bookkeeper for an insurance firm. He attended Ludwig-Maximillian University in Munich (philosophy and art history, 1914 to 1917) and became active in the Youth Section and later the Pacifist wing of the Social Democratic Party. In 1918, he took part in the Soviet-inspired Bavarian coup d’état, which was the first spark of the revolutionary fire that swept over Germany in the wake of the armistice. For a few months, Breitenbach also occupied an official position in the new government. Although the revolution was short-lived, the ties he forged with the radical circles of Munich’s intelligentsia later helped him establish his reputation as a photographer.In 1932, after several unsuccessful years at the head of the family business—during which period he was mainly engaged with perfecting his use of a camera—Breitenbach opened his first photographic studio. His clients were prominent members of Munich’s bohemia, including actors and actresses performing in the Munich theater. Munich was a stronghold of libertarians and refined peoples, whose spirit Breitenbach captured in theatrical portraits of his friend, the journalist Theo Riegler. This world vanished in 1933 with Hitler’s takeover.
War Years
More than his Jewish roots, the photographers political past made him a target for persecution. In August, 1933, a band of SA storm troopers, members of Hitler’s private army, banged on the door of his studio. Using a portrait of German nobleman Franz von Papen he’d taken the year before when he was Chancellor of Germany, and a letter of thanks he’d received, Breitenbach convinced the troopers that he was under Papen’s protection. With his passport about the expire, Breitenbach made his way to France a few days later, joining other German exiles seeking refuge in Paris.The Surrealist “revolution” had by then become dominant in the Parisian art scene. Soon after his arrival, Breitenbach came into contact with André Breton and his circle. Preferring to retain his independence, he never became a member of the Surrealist group, but did show work in important exhibitions of Surrealist photography alongside Man Ray, Jacques-André Boiffard, Brassaï, Eli Lotar, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Roger Parry.
Breitenbach only lived in Paris for six years, until the war broke out in 1939. Yet during this period, he produced some of his most inventive work. He adopted several techniques favored by new photographers such as superimpression, montage, solarization, printing in negative, and the photogram. More importantly, he was one of the rare artists of the pre-War years to produce color photographs. Examples are the images Montparnasse, Portrait of a Woman in Black and Red, and Forever and Ever. However, these prints are not in color, but colors, using processes of bleaching, toning, and pigment.
Also during his years in Paris, he was an active member of the German exile community, which alerted the democratic world to the threat of fascism. A high point for Breitenbach was his collaboration with Bertolt Brecht, summarized by portraits of the playwright. The war interrupted this second chapter of the photographer’s life. Interned by the French as a suspicious alien, then drafted into a civilian corps composed of foreigners, Breitenbach eventually escaped to New York from Marseille in 1941.
New Life in America
Breitenbach seemingly had no trouble adjusting to America. New York, the city in which he would spend the rest of his life, became home to him, as evidenced by his photomontage of 1942 We New Yorkers. He responded to the electric beat of the city, composing photographs such as Radio City (1942) that have a jazz-like quality.The 1950s and 1960s were years of intense activity for Breitenbach. He did photographic reportage in Asia for the United Nations and other varied businesses, documenting relief work. He exhibited his photographs extensively in Europe in the 1930s (especially in Paris) and in the United States from the 1940s to the mid-1960s, including at the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
and the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
. The time not spent on the road was spent absorbed by his teaching at Cooper Union and The New School.
After Life
Since his death, there have been 26 one person exhibitions of his work, shown New York, Paris, Berlin, Munich, and multiple other locations in both Europe in the United States. Eight books have been published on his work, including two by Larissa Dryansky (Josef Breitenbach and Josef Breitenbach Manifesto) and Josef Breitenbach Photographien, published by Schirmer/Mosel. The Josef Breitenbach archive is located at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, Tucson.Publications
Josef Breitenbach Photographien. München; Paris; London: Schirmer/Mosel, 1996. Print.Dryansky, Larisa. Josef Breitenbach. Paris: les Éditions de l'Amateur and musée Nicéphonre Niépce, 2001. Print.
Dryansky, Larisa. Josef Breitenbach Manifesto. Portland: Nazraeli Press LLC, 2008. Print
External links
- http://horsesthink.com/?p=712
- Photographs by Josef Breitenbach
- http://www.creativephotography.org/collections/art/indexPhotographs.php
- http://www.gittermangallery.com/html/artistresults.asp?artist=1776&testing=true
- http://www.stephendaitergallery.com/dynamic/artist.asp?ArtistID=18
- http://www.camerawork.de/lang-en/component/search/josef%20Breitenbach.html?ordering=&searchphrase=all