A Class of Their Own

Q: What is "A Class of Their Own" about?

The pioneer group of the Düsseldorf School. The ‘Düsseldorf School’ has become a household name in the art world for one of the most successful and influential strains of modern photography. Coined in the late 1980s, the name refers mainly to the pioneer group of students of the late Bernd Becher, who in 1976 became the first professor for creative photography at a German arts academy. His students included Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Thomas Ruff, and Thomas Struth, all of them today internationally acclaimed artists in their own right. Whereas ‘Düsseldorf School’ initially was used as a handy term for a group of artists with the same university’s background, it quickly turned into a powerful brand name both in critical and commercial contexts. Despite its welcomed impact on the art scene, the members of the ‘School’ felt rather ambiguous about their perception as a group which turned them into stars but simultaneously risked levelling individual profiles and differences. What exactly connects and distinguishes them aesthetically is for the first time thoroughly explored in Maren Polte’s pioneering study.

Q: Who wrote "A Class of Their Own"?

"A Class of Their Own" was written by Maren Polte. Maren Polte teaches art history and heads the Department of Art Mediation at Bern University of the Arts.

Q: What is the Table of Contents for "A Class of Their Own"?

Introduction I. Bernd and Hilla Becher 1. Origins 2. Aesthetics 3. Reception 4. Teachings II. Foundations of the Düsseldorf School 1. Points of departure 2. Themes and orientation 3. Conceptual Photography of the 1960s 4. Conventional methods of photography in the 1970s III. Development of pictorial rhetorics 1. The switch to colour 2. Expansion of format 3. Construction 4. Digital and analogue abstraction IV. Reflexive and self-referential aesthetics 1. Observation and re-organisation 2. Sociograms 3. Multiple functions 4. Reflection of media V. Tradition 1. References to form 2. Critical engagement with painting 3. Genres 4. Reception VI. Principle and difference 1. ‘The Big, Still Picture’ (Das große stille Bild) 2. “Finders” 3. “Fabricators” 4. Summary Notes Bibliography Color section

The Düsseldorf School of Photography

Maren Polte (Author),

Paperback

Series: Lieven Gevaert Series 24

Category: Art, Media and Visual Culture, Photography

Language: English

ISBN: 9789462701045

Publication date: April 24, 2017

€39.50 (including 6% VAT)

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Number of pages: 264

Size: 230 x 170 x mm

Stock item: 116695

Standard delivery time for print books:

For Belgium: 5 to 8 working days

For EU: 2 to 3 weeks

For other countries: 4 to 5 weeks

Summary
Contents
About the Author
Reviews
FAQs

The pioneer group of the Düsseldorf School.

The ‘Düsseldorf School’ has become a household name in the art world for one of the most successful and influential strains of modern photography. Coined in the late 1980s, the name refers mainly to the pioneer group of students of the late Bernd Becher, who in 1976 became the first professor for creative photography at a German arts academy. His students included Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Thomas Ruff, and Thomas Struth, all of them today internationally acclaimed artists in their own right. Whereas ‘Düsseldorf School’ initially was used as a handy term for a group of artists with the same university’s background, it quickly turned into a powerful brand name both in critical and commercial contexts. Despite its welcomed impact on the art scene, the members of the ‘School’ felt rather ambiguous about their perception as a group which turned them into stars but simultaneously risked levelling individual profiles and differences. What exactly connects and distinguishes them aesthetically is for the first time thoroughly explored in Maren Polte’s pioneering study.

Introduction

I. Bernd and Hilla Becher
1. Origins
2. Aesthetics
3. Reception
4. Teachings

II. Foundations of the Düsseldorf School
1. Points of departure
2. Themes and orientation
3. Conceptual Photography of the 1960s
4. Conventional methods of photography in the 1970s

III. Development of pictorial rhetorics
1. The switch to colour
2. Expansion of format
3. Construction
4. Digital and analogue abstraction

IV. Reflexive and self-referential aesthetics
1. Observation and re-organisation
2. Sociograms
3. Multiple functions
4. Reflection of media

V. Tradition
1. References to form
2. Critical engagement with painting
3. Genres
4. Reception

VI. Principle and difference
1. ‘The Big, Still Picture’ (Das große stille Bild)
2. “Finders”
3. “Fabricators”
4. Summary

Notes Bibliography Color section

Maren Polte

Maren Polte teaches art history and heads the Department of Art Mediation at Bern University of the Arts.

In her thorough investigation, Polte shows how the Bechers’ visual analytical approach reverberates in the individual pictorial idioms their students developed, leading them, as Polte notes, on a path from ‘image into picture’. [...] fresh and much-needed perspectives on what constitutes photography in Germany today. [...] highlight important areas in which photography defines identity, and in turn how concepts of identity are applied to photography.

The Burlington Magazine, May 2018, Jule Schaffer

Frequently Asked Questions

What is "A Class of Their Own" about?

The pioneer group of the Düsseldorf School.

Who wrote "A Class of Their Own"?

"A Class of Their Own" was written by Maren Polte.

Maren Polte teaches art history and heads the Department of Art Mediation at Bern University of the Arts.

Is "A Class of Their Own" part of a series?

Yes, "A Class of Their Own" is part of the "Lieven Gevaert Series" series. It's book 24 in the series.

Named after a ground-breaking figure in the Belgian photography industry, the Lieven Gevaert Series is a peer reviewed series of innovative books on photography. Launched in 2004, the LG Series takes into account the ubiquitous presence of photography within modern culture and, in particular, the visual arts. At the forefront of contemporary thinking on photography, the books offer new insights in the position of the photographic medium within the art historical, theoretical, social and institutional contexts.

The Lieven Gevaert Series is published by Leuven University Press, in collaboration with 'The Lieven Gevaert Research Centre for Photography, Art and Visual Culture' at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and Université catholique de Louvain (www.lievengevaertcentre.be).

The series covers four types of publications:

outstanding monographic studies
multi-authored volumes on a specific topic
book length projects with artists
translations and/or reprints of classic texts.

All books are published in English and are written for an international audience of scholars.

Format

All books in the series are published in 17*23 cm paperback with French flaps, printed in black and white on white maco paper and with a maximum page extent of 300 pages (120.000 words) including images (unless agreed otherwise).

Authors interested in publishing their book in Open Access can check out the funding options here. Open access books are published under a creative commons license.

Series editors

Hilde Van Gelder, KU Leuven
Alexander Streitberger, UCLouvain

Proposals

Proposals and enquiries can be sent to the series editors.

Please make use of the submission form to present the full manuscript to our board.
Authors interested in Open Access can consult the available funding options.

Links & Resources

Proposal Submission Form

Guidelines to submit a book proposal for the Lieven Gevaert Series

Open Access & Funding Options

What is the Table of Contents for "A Class of Their Own"?

Introduction

I. Bernd and Hilla Becher
1. Origins
2. Aesthetics
3. Reception
4. Teachings

II. Foundations of the Düsseldorf School
1. Points of departure
2. Themes and orientation
3. Conceptual Photography of the 1960s
4. Conventional methods of photography in the 1970s

III. Development of pictorial rhetorics
1. The switch to colour
2. Expansion of format
3. Construction
4. Digital and analogue abstraction

IV. Reflexive and self-referential aesthetics
1. Observation and re-organisation
2. Sociograms
3. Multiple functions
4. Reflection of media

V. Tradition
1. References to form
2. Critical engagement with painting
3. Genres
4. Reception

VI. Principle and difference
1. ‘The Big, Still Picture’ (Das große stille Bild)
2. “Finders”
3. “Fabricators”
4. Summary

Notes Bibliography Color section

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