»a careful look rather than a passing glance
taking one’s time rather than walking on
research rather than waffle
active exploration rather than passive enjoyment
subjective experience rather than objective explanation
affectionate and playful rather than desperately rational«
1. Section
For over thirty years young artists studying to become photographers at the Graphische (Höhere Graphische Bunde-Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt) have used the paintings in the Picture Gallery as inspirations for their own works. The main aims of the project »Bilder nach Bildern« (paintings after paintings) are encouraging an intellectual confrontation with a selected Old Master artwork, and learning to use the Picture Gallery both as a pool of ideas for contemporary solutions and as an impulse for one’s own creative production. Initially the focus was on the photographic reconstruction of a painting but during the last few years students were encouraged to develop a more comprehensive concept and focus on a specific aspect of their chosen Old Master painting.
Thanks to the initiative of Stefan Zeisler, creative director of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and himself an alumnus of our photography class, a group of dedicated graduates has further developed this school project supervised by Wolfgang Vogg, who teaches art history and media studies, for this exhibition. Eleven contemporary positions by young photographers will be on show in the Bassano Hall. Selected by a top-level jury, these works offer a wide spectrum of different approaches and their execution in the photographic - or some other artistic - medium.
