The exhibition “New Perspectives” is a prelude to a future collaboration between the Ann and Jürgen Wilde Foundation and the Pinakothek der Moderne. Its emphasis lies on avant-garde photography that forms a major focal point of the collection. Each of the nine protagonists, including Aenne Biermann, Karl Blossfeldt, Florence Henri, Germaine Krull, Albert Renger- Patzsch and August Sander, who all made a mark with their own styles, are introduced with work complexes that are characteristic of their oeuvre. The some 110 vintage prints of exceptional quality from the time the pictures were first taken open up a broad spectrum of innovative object photography that ranges from the experimental to seemingly surrealistic compositions and typological studies, the likes of which have rarely been seen up until now in Munich.

Since the opening of the Pinakothek der Moderne in 2002, photography has been one of the focal areas of the Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen’s collecting activities, and has become firmly rooted in the Sammlung Moderne Kunst through the regular display of works from the collection as well as special exhibitions. The department of photography and new media – which until that time had been limited to contemporary photography – has now been expanded in a unique manner to include a high-quality and extensive collection of works of modernist photography. The internationally renowned collection amassed by Ann and Jurgen Wilde was transferred to the Munich-based foundation of the same name in 2010 which, in future, will be working closely together with the Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen and the Pinakothek der Moderne in particular.

Ann and Jurgen Wilde began collecting photographs at the end of the 1960s.

Today, their collection on the photography of the early 20“‘ century is one of the most important. Over a period of forty years, the benefactors assembled around six thousand original prints and ten thousand negatives, extensive archives on the history of 20“‘-century photography and a specialist collection of books comprising several thousand volumes. The archives on the two artists Karl Blossfeldt and Albert Renger-Patzsch, started in the 1970s and unparalleled with regard to their scope and quality, also form part of the holdings of the Ann and Jurgen Wilde Foundation. These archives were founded in the 1970s after acquiring the estates.

New Perspectives. Modern photography from the Ann and Jürgen Wilde Foundation
Until June 26
Pinakothek der Moderne
Barer Straße 40
80333 München