NON-OBJECTIVE PHOTOGRAPHY
PAST AND PRESENT

The »abstract picture« ­ that central invention of modernist art, has its
origins in painting. Subsequently artists in Europe and the United States
made attempts to produce »abstractions« using other media. In graphic
art, in sculpture and [from 1916] in photography.

The artists' group »Abstraction-Création« [1], founded in 1931 in Paris,
established two ways to the »abstract picture«. One was the reduction
of »nature« to elementary forms [»abstraction«], the other the compo-
sition of elementary form and colour constellations without reference
to »nature« [»création«].

Because of its dependence on »real« subjects, photography would ap-
pear to be limited to the first form of abstraction. But fully non-objective
results can also be achieved through light pictures produced without
the camera.

The »abstract« photo has however remained a marginal area of came-
ra work, although one with an unbroken history.

Artists who come to this area today are therefore now building on a
solid tradition of 85 years' duration. To add something new to this re-
quires no less inventiveness than in other forms of art.

Are there are any aspects of abstract photography that have not al-
ready been explored, or strategies for non-objective photos that have
not yet been exhausted? With the artists I am now going to introduce,
the answer in my opinion is yes.

The »abstractions« of these artists are »contemporary« in two sen-
ses: all the works I am showing are recent, all are from the 1990s and
most of them were produced in the second half of the decade. They
are also by artists who started their careers after 1960 ­ when the
present postmodern epoch had already begun.

This epoch is characterized by a plurality of styles; on the contempo-
rary art market, and even in the collections of individual galleries and
the works of individual artists a heterogeneous mixture of pictures is
the acceptable norm.

The conflict between classic modern representatives of the »figura-
tive« and the »abstract« has been resolved, and the differences have
disappeared. The choice of one or other style is no longer defended
on the basis of a particular philosophy or even world view.

The form vocabulary of the modern artists, ranging from »abstrac-
tion« to »realism«, has become a source of ideas which artists who
now belong to the postmodern age can exploit without scruple, chang-
ing their aesthetic approach with each series of work or pursuing
various styles in parallel series of work.

It might thus be the case that you have seen quite different works by
one or other of the artists I am presenting.

2.

Since with many of the works here it may be tempting to ask whether
they have anything to do with photography at all, I would like to ad-
dress this aspect in advance.

From the photographic point of view, almost all the artists I am present-
ing are »experimental«. They employ unorthodox methods, and use
materials and equipment often in a manner deliberately contrary to the
norm.

What does it signify, however, if we say their work falls somewhere
between art and photography? Most artists who use a camera would
put themselves in this category, even when they work in a »docu-
mentary« style.

The general acceptance of artistic status for certain forms of photo-
graphy in the last third of the 20th century has had paradoxical conse-
quences. In the art world, photos are no longer viewed and assessed
in the context of "photographic historyÓ but in the context of »art
history«.

Assessment criteria based purely on photography are no longer valid,
which also means that technical and iconographic parallels to historic
models are now not generally mentioned, because they are not even
noticed. The camera has been accepted as the modern substitute for
brushes and pigment. The art public no longer perceives photo works
as »graphics« or »prints«. As a result, these now compete with paint-
ings, which they have come to resemble in terms of format as well
as price level.

This is why artists who use cameras insist that they are not photo-
graphers. Sculptors, perhaps, or painters, but please not photogra-
phers or photographic artists.

It is thus surprising that abstract photography has such a low status
on the art market ­ compared for example with the »documentary«
work of the Becher students. Especially since, right from the start,
abstract photography has always been much closer to the art of its
day than to the photography.

It is therefore difficult to explain why »abstract« photography com-
mands so little attention from curators, critics and collectors. Perhaps
it has something to do with the fact that abstract art, too, is currently
less in demand on the international art markets ­ with the exception
of stars such as Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke.

Abstract painting and abstract photography are probably linked in this
respect, so that the production and value of abstract photography in-
crease when abstract painting is en vogue. And conversely, abstract
photography is only of marginal interest when the art of a particular
period tends away from the abstract.

In the postmodern period so far, there has only been one [relatively
brief] period when the public was receptive to abstract photography.
Namely towards the end of the 1980s, when the American art market
also saw a revival of abstract painting which established the careers
of artists such as Ross Bleckner, Peter Halley and Philipp Taaffe.

At this time there were various exhibitions of abstract photography
in New York galleries. And ­ somewhat later ­ in German-speaking
countries there were two museum exhibitions I would like to mention.
One was called »Presence in Absence« and was curated by Walter
Binder [2], the other »The Disappearance of Things from Photogra-
phy«, and was curated by Monika Faber [3].


Footnotes

[1] Abstraction-Création, Art non-figurative, international artists'
group founded in Paris in 1931. Its magazine Abstraction-Création
was issued annually from 1931 to 1936 and represented the main
trends in this area in the first half of the 1930s.

[2] Anwesenheit bei Abwesenheit ­ Fotogramme und die Kunst
des 20. Jahrhunderts (Presence in Absence ­ Photograms and
the Art of the 20th Century). Schweizerische Stiftung für Photo-
graphie, Kunsthaus Zürich, 1990.

[3] Vom Verschwinden der Dinge aus der Fotografie (The Disap-
pearance of Things from Photography), Österreichisches Fotoar-
chiv im Museum Moderner Kunst Wien, 1992.