13.11.2026 – 28.02.2027
The world was in the throes of a deep crisis: the First World War was over, and there was depression and poverty. People therefore sought to view reality anew – soberly, clearly, objectively and literally. ‘Art photography’, with its idealised aestheticism, which had been cultivated until 1914 particularly amongst circles of ambitious amateurs, had had its day. A direct, unadorned, media-friendly visual style, combined with a clear commitment to technical modernism, was called for. In Germany, Ellen Auerbach, Aenne Biermann, Karl Blossfeldt, Alfred Ehrhardt, Albert Renger-Patzsch and August Sander had committed themselves to ‘New Objectivity photography’, which reached its peak with the ‘Film und Foto’ exhibition organised by the Deutscher Werkbund in 1929. The exhibition’s call for a contemporary visual language – shown in Vienna immediately after its run in Stuttgart – left its mark not least on the work of Austrian artists such as Trude Fleischmann, Grete Kolliner and Rudolf Koppitz. Organised around key motifs and thematic clusters, the exhibition presents over a hundred outstanding artistic works from the New Photography movement of the 1920s and 1930s, bringing together pieces from renowned European museums, institutions and collections, including works from private collections that have never before been exhibited.
NEW. OBJECTIVE. Photography of the 1920s and 1930s
13.11.2026 – 28.02.2027
Leopold Museum
Museumquartier Wien
Museumplatz 1
1070 Vienna
www.leopoldmuseum.org
