Gotthard Schuh @ Mapfre Foundation – Madrid

Mapfre Foundation is organising a first major retrospective in Madrid of one of the most important Swiss photographers of the XXth century: Gotthard Schuh.

In his early 30s Schuh stopped his promising career as a painter to become a passionate photographer, participating enthusiastically in the aesthetic photographic revolution of the late 20s.. the “new vision”. He had discovered photojournalism, an excellent way to put into practice all his ideas.

But photojournalism wasn’t enough for him, he tried to escape from daily ordinary routines. Also in the 30s he stayed in Paris several times, which allowed him to leave the rigid “new vision” movement behind and develop a more “poetic realism” style. The emotional expressiveness, dense atmospheres and psychological sensitivity became the central elements of his photography.

In 1941 (when he’s 44) he’s named Graphic Editor @ Neue Zürcher Zeitung. He’s given the possibility to present his own works as well as those of emerging & unknown new talent like Robert Frank or Brassaï. He starts at that time publishing most of his photographs as part of books, Inseln Der Gotter (Island of Gods) becomes the central piece of his publications which summarizes his one-year-trip to Singapore, Java, Sumatra & Bali.

In 1950 Schuh co-founded the Kollegium Schweizerischer Photographen association together with the photographers Werner Bischof, Paul Senn, Jakob Tuggener and Walter Läubli. Characterised by a rather rigid type of organisation, it brought together eminent photographers and promoted original photography with artistic aspirations and played an essential role in photography renovation after WWII.

By the end of his career Schuh decided to go back to painting but his big artistic pretensions would remain as an unavoidable guide for the following generation of Swiss photographers.

113 photographs (93 of Schuh, 10 of his pals @ Kollegium) that Mapre Foundation is bringing from Winterthur’s Swiss Foundation of Photography (curated by their director Peter Pfrunder) to its Madrilian exhibition centre situated in the central Azca complex until late February. Now you know what to do…. it’s free!