Gotthard Schuh
Italien (Italy)

Exhibition:
October 7 to November 12, 2022

Opening:
Thursday, October 6, 2022, 18.30h
Introduction by Sabine Münzenmaier, cultural mediator

Guided Tour:
Saturday, October 29, 2022, 15 Uhr

Finissage:
Saturday, November 12, 2022, 13-17h

Opening Hours:
Wednesday to Friday 17-19h
Saturday 13-17h
or by appointment


Galerie 94 is pleased to announce the exhibition Gotthard Schuh — Italien. Italien marks the second solo show dedicated to Swiss photographer Gotthard Schuh (*1897; †1969) at Galerie 94. The exhibition features 51 unique photographs, most of which were printed in 1953 as part of Schuh’s book project Italien.
The 51 photographs presented in the exhibition shed light on the distinguished aspects of Gotthard Schuh’s oeuvre that establish Schuh as an irreplaceable link in the history of Swiss photography. As a photojournalist of the 20th century whose visual language sprang from the movements of New Objectivity and New Vision, Schuh’s life correlated with significant world-historical events. This resulted in an ever-relevant dialectic of form and content which is also evident in Schuh’s images of Italy. Gotthard Schuh achieved a satisfying balance of image composition and expressive sensitivity. Furthermore, Schuh accepted and respected the unpredictability of coincidence in his creative process. With the exhibition Italy, Galerie 94 celebrated a component of Schuh’s oeuvre in which the photographic travelogue and the photojournalistic archive fuse together in a new form of visual expression. In this respect, the exhibition invites the viewer to experience Gotthard Schuh’s photographs of the Italian nation in a new way, detached from the set sequences of the photo book.
Italy explores the meticulous intensity that characterizes both the production and the photographic message of Gotthard Schuh’s work. Overall, Schuh was and remains a storyteller who alternates between conclusive singular images and interrelated groups of images to convey his oftentimes poetic statements. Italy pays tribute to Schuh’s creative understanding of the human moment and recounts the multifaceted lives of the rural and urban populations of the land where the lemons bloom. Analogous to Schuh’s original book project, the photographs in the exhibition deal with the overarching themes of architecture and landscape, professional craftsmanship and tradition, and portraiture. In the latter, we encounter women, men, and children in various constellations. In short, the exhibition evokes a cohesive web of Italy’s built and natural environment and its inhabitants. Despite the exhibition’s thematic specificity, it succeeds in taking on a sense of universality. The curated selection of original prints results in a pictorial Conditio Humana, whose lyrical content attests to Gotthard Schuh’s neverending relevance. Text: Gwendolyn Fässler