{"title":"The Ghost and the Rock: Albert Renger-Patzsch and the Shape of Time","authors":"Megan R. Luke","doi":"10.1111/1467-8365.12696","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>The career of photographer Albert Renger-Patzsch began in the early 1920s in the storerooms of Germany's ethnographic museums, and ended in 1966 with the publication of his last photobook, <i>Gestein</i> (Rock). His reputation as a leading exponent of <i>Neue Sachlichkeit</i> (New Objectivity) developed in tandem with heated debates over sculptural facsimiles and contemporary art in the historical museum in the late Weimar Republic. These debates gave expression to the ‘non-simultaneity of the simultaneous’ (<i>Ungleichzeitigkeit des Gleichzeitigen</i>), a central concept for the crisis of historicism in the post-inflation years. In an age of mass reproduction, could ‘things’ still reliably embody and convey the past into present? This question took on renewed urgency for Renger at the end of his life – as, indeed, it did for many writers of his generation, who, if they outlived Nazi terror, genocide, and war, looked back on the historical valence of objecthood as unfinished business.</p>","PeriodicalId":8456,"journal":{"name":"Art History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1467-8365.12696","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Art History","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8365.12696","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"ART","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The career of photographer Albert Renger-Patzsch began in the early 1920s in the storerooms of Germany's ethnographic museums, and ended in 1966 with the publication of his last photobook, Gestein (Rock). His reputation as a leading exponent of Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) developed in tandem with heated debates over sculptural facsimiles and contemporary art in the historical museum in the late Weimar Republic. These debates gave expression to the ‘non-simultaneity of the simultaneous’ (Ungleichzeitigkeit des Gleichzeitigen), a central concept for the crisis of historicism in the post-inflation years. In an age of mass reproduction, could ‘things’ still reliably embody and convey the past into present? This question took on renewed urgency for Renger at the end of his life – as, indeed, it did for many writers of his generation, who, if they outlived Nazi terror, genocide, and war, looked back on the historical valence of objecthood as unfinished business.
期刊介绍:
Art History is a refereed journal that publishes essays and reviews on all aspects, areas and periods of the history of art, from a diversity of perspectives. Founded in 1978, it has established an international reputation for publishing innovative essays at the cutting edge of contemporary scholarship, whether on earlier or more recent periods. At the forefront of scholarly enquiry, Art History is opening up the discipline to new developments and to interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approaches.