Hauser & Wirth Presents 'August Sander', April 20

Beginning 20 April 2017, Hauser & Wirth will present 'August Sander', the gallery's first exhibition devoted to the late German photographer, a forefather of conceptual art and pioneering documentarian of human diversity. The exhibition features 40 rare large-scale Sander photographs, which have come directly from The August Sander Family Collection. Made between 1910 and 1931, the portraits on view paint a picture of Germany's complex socioeconomic landscape in the years leading up to and through the Weimar Republic. These early examples of Sander's oeuvre - in particular, the 'Portfolio of Archetypes', 12 images at the heart of Hauser & Wirth's presentation - laid the framework for 'People of the 20th Century', the artist's larger, lifelong effort to catalogue contemporary German society through his photographs and to reveal the truth of its ethnic and class diversity. Sander's son Gunther (1907 - 1987) selected and printed these 40 photographs, along with 90 others, in a unique oversize format in 1972 for inclusion in the exhibition 'Men without Masks: Faces of Germany 1910 - 1938' at the Mannheimer Kunstverein in 1973. With stunning detail drawn forth by their scale, these 'Men without Masks' photographs capture a critical moment in Sander's artistic evolution and in our collective history.

'August Sander' will be view at Hauser & Wirth's 69th Street space through 17 June 2017.