BILDHALLE Gallery for classic and contemporary photography, Stauffacherquai 56, 8004 Zurich, bildhalle.ch, info@bildhalle.ch
AN ARTIST IN MOTION
One can take the easy way out and argue that Groebli’s oeuvre represents a reaction to the academic thoughts and deeds that dominate Swiss photography in the name of Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity). But the essence of his work goes beyond resistance to the predominance of cool, objective realism. Groebli’s artistic interest testifies to a genuine, indefatigable drive. The mentor of Neue Sachlichkeit in Switzerland was German-born Hans Finsler, responsible as of 1932 for establishing the first course in photography at the School of Art and Crafts in Zurich. After an apprenticeship with Theo Vonow in Zurich, Groebli submitted to Finsler’s objective regime for only half a year. The rigor mortis of “precision aesthetics” was incompatible with his personality across the board. His pictures are different, striking for their unusual framing and subjective, associative perspectives. After a short time spent studying a more academic approach to looking and seeing, he logically gravitated toward the film camera, motivated by the desire to master the work of a documentary cameraman. René Groebli has always been an artist on the move. Movement is second nature to him, which explains why the development of his art does not follow a linear path and his works cannot be read as single iconic pictures. Groebli feels and works lyrically.
In 1946, 22 years old and still a student of Hans Finsler, he directs his camera at pedestrians hurrying across the Quaibrücke bridge in Zurich. The shot is blurred, unaesthetic according to the prevailing photographic canon; it shows contempt of the rules. That same year Groebli photographs something that he would investigate and refine in untold variations in the years to come: the tension of time confined in space, the drive toward dynamics known as Modernism. Riding his bicycle freehanded, Groebli, a go-getter from the word go, takes pictures of what lies before him: the future. Like a cineaste he wants to understand the essence of movement and the energy that lies in what is new and untested. The picture, taken over the handlebars of his bicycle, presages the oeuvre to come. It prefigures the breakthrough that would launch his career three years later. In 1949 he self-published the picture essay Rail Magic from a series of 67 photographs taken while riding a steam engine from Paris to Basel. It has gone down in history as a milestone of poetic photography in Switzerland. Daniele Muscionico Publicist and writer
He apprehends the medium of photography as a centrifugal force moving out from the centre – a centre that is dynamic, the primal form of creativity.
Riding a bicycle freehanded, Zurich, Switzerland | Freihändig auf dem Fahrrad, Zürich, Schweiz | 1946
Ball game on Quaibrücke bridge, Zurich | Ballspiel auf der Quaibrücke, Zürich | 1950
RAIL MAGIC
Apart from the trade magazine Camera and the themed issues of Du, the photographic landscape in Switzerland was somewhat dreary around 1949. Committed reporters had long since flown the coop, with the ambitioned excellence of advertising and the drive of the 1930s having yielded to petty bourgeois taste.
He had an unerring eye for a motif and its aesthetic. He immersed himself in black-and-white symphonies and savored the delights: glamour and glitz, heroism; the might of the black metal and the ephemeral clouds of steam. Rarely are his photographs taken head on – diagonals promise movement, rapture, unbridled velocity.
22-year-old René Groebli was no exception. After an apprenticeship in photography and studies at the School of Arts and Crafts in Zurich, he took off as well. On his own. Shouldering his camera, he took a seat in post-World War II trains – and looked. He travelled through Switzerland and from Basel to Paris. Planted himself in the driver’s cab, near the firebox, on railroad bridges and in front of closed barriers. He took note of tunnel entrances, masts and signals, steam and, above all, speed. He was fascinated with the world of railroad stations and the rails in between, with the sooty black and steaming white, the smell and the noise, the snorting and chugging of the engines, the magical hissing. The train as a cosmic universe.
They take the breath away of photographer, co-traveller and viewer alike. René Groebli takes pictures from the perspective of the engine driver. He stands just behind him and looks over his shoulder and cap into the underworld, the maelstrom, the void. He is a superb dramaturg of dynamic proposition and past master of the contrast between blurring and precise brilliance. Visual enchantment. A feast for the eyes.
While Jakob Tuggener still celebrates materiality, René Groebli sees the energy, the power and even the violence of locomotives. His photo essay Rail Magic is not reportage; it is an inner experience that shows an affinity with “Subjective Photography“ that prevailed mainly in postwar Germany. Groebli had the vision and skill to convert the intensity of his experience into compelling images.
The Eye of Love followed Rail Magic and features everything that makes for classical photography. But beyond the history of photography and critical acclaim, this oeuvre stands for itself alone and must be celebrated as such; it is a tribute to a world gone by and, what’s more, a metaphor for the flow of life and the daring of existence. Guido Magnaguagno Art historian
Rail Magic | Magie der Schiene | no. 399 | 1949
GROEBLI‘S EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS CLEARLY TESTIFY TO HIS PENCHANT FOR CINEMATIC STRATEGIES, HIS PRAISE OF PACE, SPEED AND MOVEMENT, EXPRESSED IN BLURRING, FUZZINESS AND AN AESTHETIC WITH A DISTINCT FORWARD DRIVE. IT IS SAID THAT HE “MADE THE GRAIN DANCE”. WENN SICH IN GROEBLIS FRÜHER FOTOGRAFIE ETWAS AUSMACHEN LÄSST, DANN EIN HANG ZU FILMISCHEN STRATEGIEN, ZU EINEM LOB DER GESCHWINDIGKEIT, ZU TEMPO UND BEWEGUNG, ARTIKULIERT ÜBER VERWISCHUNGEN, UNSCHÄRFE, EINE DEUTLICH VORWÄRTS STREBENDEN ÄSTHETIK. ER LASSE «DAS KORN TANZEN», HEISST ES. HANS-MICHAEL KOETZLE
Indian (female) dancer from the group Ram Gopal, Corso, Zurich | Indische Tänzerin aus der Tanzgruppe Ram Gopal, Corso, Zürich | 1948
Trester Club, Zurich | Tresterclub, Zürich | 1947
This very photograph made its way into Edward Steichen’s trailblazing exhibition “The Family of Man” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Dieses Bild wurde von Edward Steichen für die bahnbrechende Ausstellung «The Family of Man» im Museum of Modern Art in New York ausgewählt.
Nicholas Brothers dancer, Corso, Zurich | Tänzer der Nicholas Brothers, Corso, Zßrich | 1948
The Eye of Love, Lying nude | Das Auge der Liebe, Liegender Akt | Paris, 1952
Crystal Palace Park | London, 1951
HAD I BEEN A POET, I WOULD PROBABLY HAVE GONE TO THE NEAREST COFFEE SHOP TO WRITE LOVE POEMS FOR RITA… BUT MY EMOTIONAL IMPRESSIONS ALMOST UNWITTINGLY TURNED INTO A PHOTOGRAPHIC LOVE POEM. WÄRE ICH DICHTER GEWESEN, HÄTTE ICH MICH WOHL INS NÄCHSTGELEGENE CAFÉ GESETZT, UM FÜR RITA LIEBESGEDICHTE ZU SCHREIBEN… ABER SO VERWANDELTEN SICH MEINE EMOTIONALEN EINDRÜCKE FAST UNGEWOLLT ZU EINEM FOTOGRAFISCHEN LIEBESGEDICHT. RENÉ GROEBLI
The Eye of Love, Undressing | Das Auge der Liebe, Entkleiden | Paris, 1952
ALEX: PLEASE ADD BLACK LEFT & BOTTOM UNTIL FULL BLEED. THANK YOU!
Rail Magic, Milan | Magie der Schiene, Mailand | no. 395 | 1949
The red man, studio photograph, Zurich | Der rote Mann, Studioaufnahme, ZĂźrich | 1957
I WORKED FOR SEVERAL NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES IN MY HOMETOWN AND WAS SOON OFFERED MY FIRST ADVERTISING JOBS. THE NIGHTLIFE WAS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE SUBJECTS: THE STAGE, CLUBS AND CIRCUSES FASCINATED ME. IN MEINER HEIMATSTADT ARBEITETE ICH FÜR VERSCHIEDENE ZEITUNGEN UND ZEITSCHRIFTEN UND ERSTE KLEINE WERBEAUFTRÄGE WURDEN AN MICH HERANGETRAGEN. VIELE AUFNAHMEN ENTSTANDEN IM NACHTLEBEN: BÜHNEN, CLUBS UND MANEGEN ÜBTEN AUF MICH EINE GROSSE FASZINATION AUS. RENÉ GROEBLI
Cocktail 48, Corso, Zurich | 1948
Left page: Trafalgar Square | London, 1949 Right page: New York Melancholia | Empire State Building | 1978 Photographed using a prism attached to the lens | Fotografiert mit einem Prisma-Aufsatz auf dem Objektiv
The Eye of Love, White collar | Das Auge der Liebe, Weisser Kragen | Paris, 1952
The Eye of Love, Red wine | Das Auge der Liebe, Rotwein | Paris, 1952
Beryl Chen | Dance with cigarette | Tanz mit Zigarette | London, 1953
Traces in the snow, Hirzel, Switzerland | Spuren im Schnee, Hirzel, Schweiz | 1991
Dunes on the coast between Nazca and Chala | DĂźnen an der KĂźste zwischen Nazca und Chala | Peru, 1972
BY CHOOSING THE MOTIVE OF THE STEAM ENGINE, GROEBLI INTUITIVELY CAPTURED THE CRUCIAL SYMBOL OF HIS TIME. IT IS THE METAPHOR OF GREAT ARTISTS WHEN THEY TALK OF THE DAWNING OF A NEW AGE, MARKED BY RADICAL CHANGE. INTUITIV WÄHLT GROEBLI MIT DEM MOTIV DER DAMPFLOKOMOTIVE DIE ENTSCHEIDENDE METAPHER DER ZEIT. ES IST DIE METAPHER GROSSER KÜNSTLER, WENN SIE VON ZEITENWENDEN, AUFBRUCH UND VERÄNDERUNG REDEN. DANIELE MUSCIONICO
Rail Magic | Magie der Schiene | no. 390 | 1949
Rail Magic | Magie der Schiene | no. 392 | 1949
Advertisement for Ruhrkohle, Deutsches Museum, Munich | Werbung fĂźr Ruhrkohle, Deutsches Museum, MĂźnchen | 1959
Sledge with tree trunk, Bernese Oberland, Switzerland | Schlitten mit Holzstamm, Berner Oberland, Schweiz | 1956
Caviar fishermen I, Caspian Sea | Kaviarfischer I, Kaspisches Meer | Babolsar, Iran, 1951
The Eye of Love, Dark portrait | Das Auge der Liebe, Dunkles Porträt | Paris, 1952
THE EYE OF LOVE
What if walls were to breathe like the skin of one’s beloved? They would expand gently, with the panting of pleasure, while their backs would melt into the torn wallpaper. Who would not wish to be drawn into such a deep inner space of love? Protected by the walls of a small chamber in which the world is locked out, for it is a chamber fraught with love. The walls are pulsating like a heart. A grainy commingling in the dusky light of intimacy, in the loving gaze. But the lid flutters above the eye, the eye of the camera, opening briefly like the aperture of the camera. Every bat of the eyelid captures the here and now like the lens of the camera. A transient here and now, yet forever reprised in the eye of future viewers. And there they will rediscover themselves in the setting of their own lives, seduced by the power of the pictures in this series, made all the greater for omitting obscenity, the “backstage” of the act of love. Everyone knows it. The pull of being a twosome. Everyone has memories of slippers under the table, of laundry hung up to dry in the room. These objects form the words hung up, like clothes hung up to dry, on lines that form this visual poem of love. To deflect the impact of such memories in our own lives as we leaf through The Eye of Love, we might find ourselves clinging to art historical reminiscences. We would then recognize in the neck of our beloved the similarly vulnerable neck pictured by Man Ray, or see his backlit photograph of Kiki and also, of course, the afterimage of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s “L’Araignée” at the sight of sheets mussed up on the bed: a picture in which the bodies of lovers, blurred, legs entwined, weave a spider web of pleasure.
It is no surprise that the series became the foundation of Groebli’s international career and that one of the photographs, the “Sitting Nude”, became part of the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The stunning power of Groebli’s 1952 series still takes our breath away, the more so because we know full well that we are not looking at a model we might at most suspect of having an affair with the photographer but rather at the unmarred bliss of René Groebli und Rita freshly married, in a hotel room in Paris. And we are all fully aware that the woman’s gleaming white dress, falling, gliding from her body into the rustling of blurred edges, betokens an encounter known to us from our own lives. The pleasure divined between the pictures in this series is as scandalous as the love and familiarity between two human beings is enduring and touching. And so the chamber in Paris becomes the heart chamber into which we have all once fallen, into which we have all once sunk. In the hope that this narrow chamber will expand into the expanses of an entire life. In the hope that these split seconds will be burned into heart and mind – like René Groebli’s photographs on the retina of the viewer. Stefan Zweifel Philosopher and curator
The Eye of Love, Sitting nude | Das Auge der Liebe, Sitzender Akt | Paris, 1952
BILDHALLE Gallery for classic and contemporary photography, Stauffacherquai 56, 8004 Zurich, bildhalle.ch, info@bildhalle.ch