Today, we encounter sculptures more often in photographs than in person. Photographs shape our view of three-dimensional art and determine how we perceive, remember, and understand it.
Image gallery
Unbekannte*r Fotograf*in, Johannes (Detail), 1927/29
Clarence Kennedy (1892-1972), Prinzessin von Urbino, vor 1928
Unbekannte*r Fotograf*in, Putto auf einem Delphin, 1967
Gustav Schwarz (1871-1958), Dornauszieher, vor 1939
The exhibition “Photography Tells the Story of Sculpture” makes this shift in perspective visible: it brings sculptures and their photographic representations into direct dialogue and invites visitors to rediscover the act of seeing itself.
Over sixty photographs from the late 19th century to the present day are juxtaposed with seven selected sculptures from the 11th to the 17th century.
Across nine thematic chapters, a history of seeing unfolds, demonstrating how sculptures are staged and interpreted through photographic means such as lighting, framing, and perspective.
The exhibition connects the Bode Museum’s sculpture collection with the institution’s previously little-known photo archive.
A richly illustrated companion volume with essays by Dr. Franziska Lampe (Photothek, Central Institute for Art History, Munich), Prof. Dr. Kathrin Müller (Institute for Art and Visual History, Humboldt University of Berlin), and other contributors explores these questions from various scholarly perspectives.
