Franz Hubmann

Franz Hubmann, the doyen of Austrian photography, will be the subject of a large-scale retrospective presented by the Kunsthistorisches Museum at the Palais Harrach from September 13 until October 26, 1999.
Franz Hubmanns contribution to Austrian photographic and cultural history is almost unrivalled.

Hailed as "Austrias Cartier-Bresson, his photographic work is the "incorruptible recorder of important and at first glance unimportant things and as such of international relevance and importance. As a co-founder of the now legendary magazine magnum during the post-war years in Vienna his work not only rivalled the achievements of Live-photography, but also enabled him to express something like the "Austrian consciousness.

The exhibition will present over 200 of his most outstanding works. Whether in New York, Paris, Rome or the by now again "golden Fifties and Sixties in Vienna: it is impossible not to be photographed by Franz Hubmann said, for example, Hans Weigel, whom he portrayed as poignantly as Picasso, Braque, Giacometti and numerous other famous representatives of the world of literature and painting, dance, theatre, music and architecture. But Hubmann also concentrated on anonymous "photographs of humans, and they are among the most striking images which his "insatiable curiosity for the sad and the comic happenings of the world (André Heller) has recorded.

In conjunction with the exhibition, a comprehensive monograph with an introductory interview by Wilfried Seipel, and essays by, among others, Carl Aigner, Otto Breicha, André Heller, Hans Hollein, and Alfred Schmeller will be published by Christian Brandstätter.