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Friday, September 4, 1098 - North Shore News - 13

German surrealist photographer's work at Presentation Hous

were able to see right into the
of the:matter, you would see that
art is the same as that of your
Lf. But can one really sce to the
vt? Feel it, love it — Wols

. PRESENTATION House
has. scored a magnificeat
coup with the first North

merican showing ever of 3
comprehensive exhibition of
the art of German surrealist

» :The show opens tomorrow and
runs to Oct. 25 at the North

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Vancouver
gallery.
It includes
85 works —
40 pho-
togiaphs, 12
watercolors
and 33 dry-
point
engravings.
The exhibit
was orga-
nized by the
Institut fiir
Ausilandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart and
is being circulated by the Goethe-
Institut. :

Wols worked as a photographer
in Paris during the early 1930s. In
1937 he became a photographer at
the Pavillon de PElégance ar the
World Exhibition in Paris. His work
was also published in fashion maga-
zings.

His most signiticant photographs
were shot between 1932 and 1938,
Some 1,800 negatives are still
around today. Just a fraction of that
total has ever been published. There
were few exhibits of his photograph-

“ic work prior to 1978,

His photographs tend to explore
unexpected detail and juxtaposition
of elements. The perspective is that
of an individual, personal reaction
to the reality at hand, New mean-
ings are found in the combinations

ie
2m ee
hoy 8

, 8 beer

of disparate elements in unusual sur-
roundings.

The surrealists made much of the
value of the coincidental.

Wols was plugged into the world
of the Parisian surrealists of the
1930s. During that decade he pho-
tographed Georges Malkine, Max
Ernst and his wife Marie-Berthe,
Jacques Prévert and Sonia Mossé.

The watercolors and drawings he
produced prior to the outbreak of
the Second World War were inspired
by the work of Yves Tanguy, Mird,
Picasso and Masson.

Wols is said to have likened his
approach in this area of artistic
endeavor to dreaming with open
eyes. Shapes and forms eventually
moved to the realm of the abstract
in his work.

Wols created 53 engravings and
one lithograpb. Twenty five of the
engravings were used to illustrate
works by Camille Bryen, René de
Solier, Jean Paul Sartre, Antonin
Artaud, Jean Paulhan, Franz Kaika
and Georges J ambrichs.

Wols was born Wolfgang Otto
Schulze in Berlin in 1913. At 19, in
1932, he moved to Paris on the rec-
ommendation of L4szié6 Moholy-
Nagy. Wols connected with the
arustic avant-garde. He took on his
pseudonym from a partially dam-
aged telegram.

His lite from the 1930s onward

was marked by poverty. Wols lived
as an cmigré from Nazi Germany.

In 1935 he was imprisoned in
Barcelona for not presenting himself
for German labor service. In 1939
Wols was imprisoned by the French
and spent 14 months in various
prison camps in the south of France.
He died Sept. 1, 1951 in Paris at
age 38, of ptomaine poisoning from
eating bad horse meat.

On Sunday, Oct. 11, Vancouver
photographic arcists Jeff Wall and
Roy Arden will be guests of the
gallery for a 2 p.m. panel discussion
about Wols and his significance as
an artist.

Arden shoots urban landscapes in
the Vancouver area. He’s particular-
ly concerned with themes of history.
economy and modernity.

Was he influenced by Wols?

“don’t think my work really
bears it that much, nor does JefPs
really, maybe the odd picrure. We’re
just fans. We're both very apprecia-
tive of his work. I don’t think his
work has that much of an influence
on art today, bur there are certain
concerns in art today thar are rele-
vant to Wols — an interest in abjec-
tion on the part of a lot of contem-
porary art,” said Arden.

He offers high praise for the col-
lection gathered at the Presentation
House exhibition, “This is a very
beautiful show of Wols. He’s a very

hard artist to put a show together,
especially with the photographs
There weren't a lot of priti
and his estate is a’ mess. Hi
has been tied up a lot for te:
sons for years and years,” said. :
Arden. ; oe
Arden himself once attempted to
pull together a Wols show. He tra
elled to Europe and put in the
research. “I couldn’t do it in th :
end because the people who owned
the work were very difficult and -
very uncooperative,” he said.
The art of Wols stiil matters,

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