Description
Stock CGW381537-2
We are pleased to offer these superb photogravures from Karl Blossfeldt’s rare and beautiful work, Urformen der Kunst (Archetypes of Art), 1929.
Born in Schielo, Germany, early on Blossfeldt (1865-1932) was a sculptor’s apprentice and modeler at the Art Ironworks and Foundry in Magdesprung. After studying painting and sculpture on a scholarship at the School of the Royal Museum of Arts and Crafts in Berlin from 1884 to 1891, he worked under Professor Meurer in Italy, Greece and North Africa collecting plant specimens. It was during these years that Blossfeldt’s interest in plant photography blossomed, along with the study of music.
For about 33 years, from 1898 to 1931, he was a professor in the sculpture of living plants at the Kunstgewerbemuseum (College of Arts and Crafts) in Berlin. In 1899, he began to photograph plant forms with a home made camera incorporating these studies into his teaching curriculum. Blossfeldt continued to travel throughout his life, particularly in the Mediterranean, collecting specimens of foreign plants. He retired in 1931.
Influenced by the 19th Century German tradition of natural philosophy, Karl Blossfeldt believed that ‘the plant must be valued as a totally artistic and architectural structure”. Over a period of thirty years, he photographed leaves, seed pods, stems, and other plant parts, against neutral white or grey backgrounds, in Northern light and under magnification. He drew inspiration, like many before him, from the medical botany and herbaria of the late Middle Ages and the 17th and 18th Centuries.
Deeply steeped in many disciplines, both scientific, creative and artistic, he has distilled a vision of the botanical world that is so vibrant and powerful, it bridges and fuses many worlds. It is a vision that has remained unfailing contemporary and that never ceases to amaze and delight those who love plant forms. For this reason, we include these remarkable photogravure in our botanical print collection.
H: 47 cm
W: 40 cm