so beautiful

so beautiful

Hauptstraße 114 Cologne, 50996, Germany Saturday, April 14, 2018–Saturday, July 7, 2018 Opening Reception: Saturday, April 14, 2018, 7 p.m.–9 p.m.


dress by thierry mugler, german vogue by lillian bassman

Lillian Bassman

Dress by Thierry Mugler, German VOGUE, 1998

24,000–32,000 EUR

miami by mary ellen mark

Mary Ellen Mark

Miami, 1986

Price on Request

In focus Gallery presents a thematically exhibition from the Gallery’s collection, as a tribute to the beauty of women. “so beautiful” will take the viewer on a journey from 1940 up to today to discover exceptional works of art photography that focus on the beauty of women.  

The exhibition "so beautiful" takes the liberty to focus on beauty and aesthetics in the #MeToo discussion and is also a reaction to the tendency in contemporary photography, to show everyday and uninspired things and events. Gerhard Richter (born 1932), one of the most successful contemporary artists, said in 2005: "It's difficult with beauty, we're not in agreement on what it should mean. Certainly it is also because the term beauty is so hackneyed or sounds like "the good" and "the true." But that does not change the value of such ideal qualities and the fact that people need beauty. For me, beauty has always been a criterion for the quality of artwork, of whatever kind and from what time. [...] Beauty is very simple, first of all the opposite of destruction and dissolution and damage, and with that it is inseparably connected with form, without which nothing can arise. «(Spiegel Nr. 33, S. 128 - 132) 

A dominant focus in the Gallery’s collection has always been images of women; whether in humanist, fashion, or conceptual contexts, a theme of elegance and grace unites them across cultures and periods.  

The group exhibition will showcase works from famous photographers like Lillian Bassman, Ruth Bernhard, Edouard Boubat, Jean Philippe Charbonnier, Lucien Clergue, Frantisek Drtikol, Elliott Erwitt, Franco Fontana, Greg Gorman, René Groebli, FC Gundlach, Frank Horvat, William Klein, Helmut Newton, Marc Riboud, Willy Ronis, Jan Saudek, Jeanloup Sieff and Karin Székessy among others.