LARS SCHWANDER

(DK)

OUR DECADES OF PORTRAITS

On the occasion of Lars Schwander's portrait exhibition at the National History Museum (The National Portrait Collection) in Denmark, ArtStamp and Gallery Stalke are delighted to present two sheets of stamps in the ongoing process for mail art. Lars Schwander has, over these two sheets, created an inciting unifying portrait of a total of 50 artists. From the punk groups of the 1980s to today's prominent visual artists. From Malaria!'s Gudrun Gut and Christine Hahn, Björk, Mark E. Smith, Robert Forster and Daniel Boon to Wes Lang, Jacob Holdt and Torben Ulrich. As well as Leonard Cohen, Martin Kippenberger, Helmut Newton, Yoko Ono, Cindy Sherman, and others who has posed in front of Lars Schwander's camera.

Lars Schwander (* 1957) is one of the most central figures in Danish photography through 30 years. He has worked at Brandts Museum, The Royal Library, the City of Culture, Louisiana MoMA, Bruun-Rasmussen Auctioneers, and has organized exhibitions both in Denmark and abroad. In 1996 he founded the Photographic Centre in Copenhagen. During the 15 years Lars Schwander ran the gallery, a large number of Danish artists were hatched through Young Danish Photography, as well as a gathering place for international photographers and people from museums worldwide. He has written numerous books and essays on photography and visual arts in general. He is currently a writer in catalogues for both Aros (Art & Porn) and Randers Art Museum (Flag - object, icon, symbol). Furthermore, Lars Schwander has exhibited his portraits in Denmark, England, France, Russia, Spain, Germany, Hungary and the US, as well as being represented in collections in several countries. From Bibliothèque Nationale and Louis Vuitton Collection in Paris to Musée de la Photographie in Charleroi and Rosphoto in St. Petersburg.

Lars Schwander is of the belief that there is a straight line from the earliest to the most recent portraits. All photographed soberly and without imaginations. His pictures are taken with a minimum of staging. However Lars Schwander’s photographs often have this sensibility of dreams and longing. He has a special ability to capture this particular romantic world. For in his optics, an image is not just an image, a portrait not just a portrait: the photograph is a projection of the photographer's own notions of life and sense of beauty. It is thus a very intimate world that opens in Lars Schwander's work.

MARTIN KIPPENBERGER / LARS SCHWANDER

Mar6n Kippenberger (1953-1997) was undoubtedly one of the greatest German painters of the 20th century. On October 25th 1996 I had an agreement of a photographic session with him through Galerie Mikael Andersen, Bredgade, Copenhagen. The day before we were four people for dinner at l'Educa6on Na6onale, a French restaurant in what is popularly called "The Piss Drain" at the centre of the city. It became very late. We sat and drank red wine un6l the restaurant closed. Before that, Kippenberger had shown some of the tricks he knew, i.a. with twis6ng his tongue... When we were out on the street at night, I asked if we s6ll had an appointment the following day. And he replied that there were no problems. Whatsoever.

The next day, exactly at 10, as we had agreed, the door opened and in came Kippenberger wearing his matching Burberry cap and scarf and a long black coat. And in his hand he held the obviously obligatory cigare]e. He exuded a rare authority. I asked him to stand in front of a white wall like we were in a studio. And we did pictures in front of his pain6ngs, which were s6ll stored along one wall. The mo6fs of his pain6ngs were primarily tables and chairs, so I subsequently asked Kippenberger to sit in a chair, both against the white wall (again), in front og the already hung pictures as well as a series where he partly stands in front of his pain6ngs and sits in the chair that I had placed in front of his pictures. In this way, Kippenberger reflects in a chair in front of his painted chairs

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One of his long-term collaborators, Chris6ne Hahn of the all female punk group Malaria!, who also helped set up the large retrospec6ve Kippenberger exhibi6on, "sehr gut / very good" in Hamburger Barnhof, Berlin, 2013, has stated:

How long before Mar6n died were these taken? He looks very haunted. Starkly real, strong, and sad - all at the same 6me. I knew him and worked with him when he was 25 and just beginning his career as a serious ar6st. He was so handsome and alive, but even then he was a slave to alcohol. He was a driven ar6st, a generous human being. Very lovable and inspiring

We did these pictures at the end of October 1996, barely five months passed before Kippenberger died in Vienna. These are also some of the latest recordings of him. It's strange to look back at these photographs: Kippenberger appears here in his ar6s6c zenith and only 43 years old. At the same 6me he seems both young and old.

We did in total three rolls of film consis6ng of twelve images each: two black and white films and one colour. A total of 36 photographs, all of which have now been acquired by Galleri Stalke Collec6on, which is also the first 6me that the photographs have been created in their en6rety. Some pictures have been exhibited in Denmark and abroad, e.g. at the Na6onal History Museum, Frederiksborg Castle - in Galerie Mikael Andersen (Copenhagen, 2001), Galerie Veneuille St.-Péres (Paris, 2001) and in Ural Vision Gallery (Budapest, 2016).

Lars Schwander is among others represented in following collec6ons: Bibliothèque Na6onale (Paris), The Royal Library (Copenhagen), Musée de la photographie (Charleroi), Museum of Photographic arts (Odense), Ros Photo (St. Petersburg), Louis Vui]on Founda6on (Paris), Thomas Olbricht Collec6on (Germany), Lenono Photo Archive (New York), Stalke Gallery (Kirke Saaby), various private collec6ons in Europe and USA.

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