Viewing Record 4 of 5
Previous Record  Next Record
Switch Views: Lightbox | List

PHOTOGRAPHS
Renger-Patzsch, Albert
Germany (1897 - 1966)
Altes Hospital Italien (Old Hospital Italy)
c. 1938 - 1940
Gelatin silver print
8 15/16 x 6 5/8 in. (22.7 x 16.8 cm) image size; 9 3/8 x 7 in. (23.8 x 17.8 cm) sheet size
Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen and The Boeing Company
FA 97.271

Albert Renger-Patzsch’s work is distinguished by a detached, almost scientific objectivity and precise attention to detail. Although known for his studies of bleak industrial landscapes, this image inside a hospital’s records room and another photograph in the exhibition revealing the patterning of shelves in a laboratory, display his interest in the beauty of line, shape, and texture in rather mundane subject matter.

Albert Renger-Patzsch was a member of the Neue Schalichkert (New Objectivity), a movement in German painting, film, and photography of the 1920s. He was appointed head of the Photographic Archive at the publisher Folkwang-Verlag in 1920, and five years later became a freelance photographer. He took commissions from industry and advertising to fund the publishing of his artworks, including his 1928 book, The World is Beautiful, for which he is best known. -- Label copy for 150 Works of Art, October 1, 2005 to February 26, 2006.

Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.