EYEWITNESS

STEVE SCHAPIRO AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

May 26 – October 3, 2017

»I have a dream« - these words by Martin Luther King Jr. symbolize the idea behind the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s: the dream of a world without racism and discrimination. The special exhibition »EYEWITNESS: STEVE SCHAPIRO AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT« is dedicated to this idea and follows the footsteps of those activists who have fought on the frontlines for the equality of African-Americans.

Within the framework of the exhibition, Museum THE KENNEDYS presents 42 black-and-white photographs of the renowned photographer Steve Schapiro. As an »Eyewitness«, Schapiro documented the crucial moments of the Civil Rights Movement between 1962 and 1968. Among them the legendary Selma-to-Montgomery-March of 1963.

The pictures are kept in a social-documentary style and originate from the artist’s early work. They impressively depict the everyday struggles of the African-American population in the Southern states and their passionate protest for a more just society. In their entirety, the photographs produce a striking documentation of the enormous social change that occurred in the United States during the decade.

Five protagonists, who have shaped the public image of the civil rights cause give the visitor an understanding of motives, means and objectives of the movement. Martin Luther King Jr., the leader and unifying force, Rosa Parks, the initiator of the first protests, James Baldwin, the writer who provided the literary soundtrack of the movement as well as Muhammad Ali, who like no other embodied the new African-American self-confidence, and Robert Kennedy on whose shoulders the hopes for political change rested.

But why were people protesting in the first place? Despite the abolition of slavery that resulted from the aftermath of the Civil War, the situation for Black Americans in the 1960s was still dismal, especially in the South. Here, they were still treated as second-class citizens. Segregation was the law of the land, which meant that public buildings and transportation were divided into two sections: white and black. The areas designated for Black people were usually threadbare at best or simply left to decay. Restaurants, bars and other private institutions often did not even grant Blacks entry into their establishments. Furthermore, lawmakers actively sought to exclude Black people from political participation by introducing perfidious and demeaning laws: e.g. in order to qualify to register to vote, prospective Black voters had to pass literacy tests.

Resistance started to form in the South in 1955: when Rosa Parks, a young Black activist, refused to give up her seat in the »white« section of a bus, her protest quickly attracted the attention of the whole nation and with Martin Luther King Jr. as its leader a new protest movement was born. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, King Jr. and his fellow activists followed the strategy of non-violent resistance. This movement would go down in history as the Civil Rights movement.

In this context, Steve Schapiro plays a decisive role: with his photographs, he was able to draw attention to the protests in the South, especially to the Selma-to-Montgomery-March. Schapiro’s pictures have been engraved deeply into the United States’ public consciousness and led to a wave of solidarity with the movement throughout the country, the U.S. government included: only four months after the activists had successfully completed the march to Montgomery, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act which guaranteed unrestricted voting rights to all Americans, no matter the color of their skin. It is for that reason that the march is considered a turning point in the history of the Civil rights Movement up to this day.

A tour of the exhibition offers vivid insights into a time not long passed during which U.S. society experienced substantial change. Schapiro’s work invites the visitor to reflect on the accomplishments of the Civil Rights Movement as well as on the prevalent challenges on the way towards a society without racism and discrimination.

We are looking forward to your visit!

March 16 to May 7, 2017

»I Want You For US Army« - this slogan paired with Uncle Sam's grim glare has been a hallmark of popular culture ever since it first appeared on a recruitment poster for the U.S. Army in 1917. The special exhibition »The Winds And Words Of War« commemorates the centennial of America's entry into World War I and sheds light on the compelling stories behind 40 iconic recruitment posters. For the first time, visitors outside the United States will be able to experience their potency at the museum THE KENNEDYS.

Created between 1917 and 1918, these placards were the cornerstones of the biggest propaganda campaign the U.S. government had ever initiated. The intention was to convince Americans that entering the war was nothing short of a necessity. At the same time, the posters had to lure as many young capable men into recruitment offices as possible.

This huge campaign effort was necessary for two main reasons: until 1916, America’s foreign policy was characterized by an unwillingness to interfere with European affairs. Additionally, at the beginning of the war, the United States was on the cusp of becoming the world’s leading economic power, taking over from Great Britain. Consequently, trying to convince Americans in 1917 that joining the allies in the war was necessary was, to quote President Woodrow Wilson, an »Herculean task.« Their support was indispensable – the US Army had a mere 110,000 soldiers at the ready, a number almost laughable in comparison to the millions of soldiers fighting in European armies.

It was for this very reason that the Committee on Public Confirmation was founded in 1917. It brought together America’s leading graphic designers and let them contribute to gearing up the population for war using images and words. Particularly interesting to note is the large variety of addressees and themes depicted in the posters: young men, housewives, farmers, and Jewish Americans – to mention only a few – were being courted with many different opportunities to get involved in the war effort. The fruits of the artists’ labor can be appreciated in this special exhibition.

A tour of the exhibition also offers visitors a glimpse into the state of poster art right before the breakthrough of a new generation of mass media: radio and television. In 1917, posters were at the height of their power as the single most effective and powerful channel for distributing information. Allison Hays-Lane, the curator of the exhibition, observes rather aptly that »these posters were the social media of their time.«

The second part of the exhibition is dedicated to the vital role of the city of San Antonio during World War I; historical photographs and the documentary »Wings« show a rapidly changing and growing city. Far away from the war-torn trenches of Europe in the military camps surrounding San Antonio, young men were trained and drilled to join the war overseas. The black and white photographs open up a new perspective on a well-known part of history.

January 12 – March 12, 2017

with works by e.g. Diane Arbus, Margaret Bourke-White,

Nan Goldin, Dorothea Lange, Lee Miller, and Ellen von Unwerth

A selection of over 60 works from the prestigious photo collection of CAMERA WORK AG gives an insight into more than a hundred years of the history of photography. It also comments on the lives and careers of 30 female virtuosos of photography.

Visual art writes visual history. This is reflected in visit to a museum: artworks give an insight into the past and let the beholder conclude on it. It catches one’s eye that mainly a »male perspective« on the centuries has been documented. Works of female artists are represented secondarily in most museum collections. Therefor, explanations are manifold.

Compared to painting the relatively young medium of photography has brought about some change: while men were able to attend photography schools from the 1850s on, at first there were no institutes open to women. However, this changed already at the end of the 19th century. In 1890, Lette-Verein opened Berlin’s first photography school for women and thereby became Germany’s first school where women could take professional photography classes. A second aspect contributing to that change was the rapid technological development of photography itself. For that reason, photography and camera operation became a mass phenomenon.

American photographer Gertrude Käsebier opened her own photo studio in New York in 1897. Two years later, her print of »The Manger« sold for $ 100–the most ever paid for a photograph at that time. Käsebier is one of the most influential exponents of pictorialism, a style of photography based on naturalism, impressionism, and symbolism which was popular from the end of the 19th century until World War I.

After World War I, pictorialism steadily lost ground to experimental photography which dealt with the mutually technical possibilities of photography. Female photographers like Berenice Abbott or Diane Arbus became accessible to different genres and had a great impact on forming a new way of seeing.

As a result of World War II, modern experimental photography came to a downfall, especially in Germany. »Some female photographers took refuge in apparently unpolitical regional-themed landscape photography,« elaborated Evelyn Schielke in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 23, 2001. By war’s end, artists began to focus on reality again. It were mainly female photographers who documented life among expanses of ruins. Dorothea Lange and Margaret Bourke-White became famous for their war and documentary photography of the late 1040s and 1950s. Lee Miller’s shots of the liberation of the concentration camps in Buchenwald and Dachau are among the most important photographs of the 20th century.

Female photographers also established themselves aside from war photography. They documented current affairs and also found their way into various work areas like fashion and theatre photography, photo journalism as well as advertising and industrial photography.

Already in the 1920s, becoming a photographer had turned into a promising career option for daughters of upper class families, such as Jacqueline Lee Bouvier. From 1951 on, the daughter of a wealthy family wrote a column for Washington Times-Herald. Its name: »Inquiring Camera Girl.« Therefor, the young college graduate took pictures of residents of Washington, D.C. and interviewed them questions on current political issues. This experience and an assisting position at Vogue sensitized her eye for the power of images. Later on, her insight became extremely valuable for her future husband’s political career.

In the post war years, fashion photography experienced a renaissance and was further developed. Female photographers like Lillian Bassman and Louise Dahl-Wolfe contributed immensely to a new interpretation of fashion. Dahl-Wolfe’s style influenced the work of famous fashion photographers like Irving Penn and Richard Avedon significantly.

Photography has consistently allowed autodidacts to build up a career. German model Ellen von Unwerth, for example, found her passion for photography while being on a photo shoot in Kenya. She was soon able to publish her work in magazines like Elle, Vogue, and Vanity Fair. French photographer Bettina Rheims, too, first worked as a model before she began to work as an artist on such as topics of transsexualism and transgender.

A tour through the special exhibition »INQUIRING CAMERA GIRL–FEMALE VIRTUOSOS OF PHOTOGRAPHY« offers not only an insight into events and developments of this and the preceding century, it also illustrates the life and work of outstanding artists whose pictures shaped our view of the past and present.