Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Work in process 5 "Six Sketches for the ancestor spirit masks project"

I made these sketches this morning, working with black and white photographs of german farmers pictured in the first volume of August Sanders "People of the 20th century".

http://www.metmuseum.org/special/August_Sander/Germany_images.htm
"Though it was never fully realized or adequately understood, August Sander’s Menschen des 20 Jahrhunderts (People of the 20th Century) was intended as a comprehensive photographic index of the German population, classified into seven groups by social “type”: the Farmer; the Skilled Tradesman; the Woman; Classes and Professions; the Artists; the City; and the Last People. The Nazis confiscated his first publication of the work, but 1800 portraits—150 of which are now on view—made mostly in the 1920s and 1930s survive as well as Sander’s notes and plans for the project, which provided the basis for its reconstruction in book and exhibition form by the August Sander Archiv in Cologne... "

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to see the finished pieces - these sketches are great!

And it's interesting that "the woman" is given a category by herself; leaves me guessing all the other categories were "the man" (the radical feminist rises in me...)

sukipoet said...

Wonderful sketches. A sense of freedom to the marks. Thanks for introducing me to August Sanders. I especially like the photo of the circus people.

Do you know the Egyptian portraits made on coffins? They are amazing. Forget what they are called, but it begins with "F".

Elizabeth said...

August Sanders is someone whom I have no knowledge of, so thanks for introducing me to him. I baulk at the idea of Women having to have a category to themselves though... I presume that the women could not possibly have also been artists/ farmers/professionals as well then ... Hmmmm!

I find his mark-making techniques interesting as they connect with what I am doing at the moment (pictures to follow).

sukipoet said...

Andrea I nominated you for a "Nice Matters" blog award. See my blog for specifics. sukipoet.blogspot.com

Elizabeth said...

Sorry, on the last bit of my comment I meant to type 'I find YOUR mark making techniques interesting...'. D'oh!