Baltimore, Maryland.- The Baltimore Museum of Art is proud to present ” Candida Höfer : Interior Worlds” on view at the museum until February 26th. Internationally acclaimed contemporary German photographer Candida Höfer focused her camera on two of Baltimore’s most venerable cultural institutions: The Johns Hopkins University’s George Peabody Library and the Walters Art Museum . A selection of the resulting images will make their Baltimore debut in “Candida Höfer: Interior Worlds”. The exhibition features 13 breathtaking images of European and American interiors that demonstrate how the artist goes beyond documenting architecture to capture moments of contemplative beauty. Höfer’s images of the Peabody Library and Walters Art Museum contrast the exciting cast iron decoration in the library’s late 19th-century reading room with the refined Italian Renaissance-inspired space of the early 20th-century museum interior.
These enormous works, each more than six feet tall, are complemented by the artist’s spectacular images of the State Art Gallery in Karlsruhe, Germany (1999); Basel University Public Library in Switzerland (1999); Bregenz Art Museum in Germany (1999); Library of the Royal Academy of Language in Madrid, Spain (2000); Harvard University Art Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts (2001); Louvre Museum in Paris, France (2005); Palais Garnier Opera House in Paris, France (2005); Library of the Archiginnasio in Bologna, Italy (2006); and Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon, Portugal (2006). The works in the exhibition are loaned by the artist and private collectors and are installed in two neoclassical galleries adjacent to the BMA’s collection of 17th- and 18th-century European paintings. Known for her intensely detailed images of grand architectural spaces, Höfer (born 1944) is among an important group of artists that emerged from the Düsseldorf Academy in the 1980s under the tutelage of influential photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher .
These artists transformed the formal and conceptual ambitions of their medium by repeatedly focusing their lenses on carefully defined subjects and expanding the size of their lushly colored images to rival painting. Höfer’s meticulously composed photographs of rooms in libraries, museums, theaters, cafés, universities, and other centers of cultural life have been featured in numerous solo exhibitions in museums throughout Europe and the United States, including the Kunsthalles in Basel and Bern, Portikus in Frankfurt am Main, and the Power Plant in Toronto. She has participated in group exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art , New York; the Museum Ludwig , Cologne; and Documenta 11. She represented Germany at the Venice Biennale in 2003 and is represented by galleries in Europe and the United States. She lives and works in Cologne, Germany.
Throughout the Baltimore Museum of Art, visitors will find an outstanding selection of European and American fine and decorative arts, 15th- through 19th-century prints and drawings, contemporary art by established and emerging contemporary artists, and objects from Africa, Asia, the Ancient Americas, and Pacific Islands. Two beautifully landscaped gardens display an array of 20th-century sculpture that is an oasis in the city. As a major cultural destination for the greater Baltimore region, the BMA organizes and presents a variety of dynamic exhibitions and innovative programs throughout the year, and frequently hosts special events with cultural and educational partners. The Museum is located three miles north of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in a park-like setting in the heart of Charles Village, adjacent to the main campus of The Johns Hopkins University. It is distinguished by a grand historic building designed in the 1920s by renowned American architect John Russell Pope and a massive wing for contemporary art added in 1994. Gertrude’s restaurant and The BMA Shop are destinations unto themselves. Visitors enjoy superb regional cuisine from celebrity chef John Shields while overlooking the scenic sculpture gardens or listening to the popular summer jazz concerts. The BMA Shop offers a variety of unique art-inspired gifts, including items from local artists and craftsmen.
From a single object in 1914, The Baltimore Museum of Art’s outstanding collection today encompasses 90,000 works of art, including the largest holding of works by Henri Matisse in the world, as well as masterpieces by Pablo Picasso , Paul Cézanne , and Vincent van Gogh . The BMA is recognized for an impressive collection of contemporary art that includes important examples of Abstract Expressionism, Minimalist sculpture, and Pop Art with many late works by Andy Warhol , as well as major acquisitions of more recent work by artists such as Olafur Eliasson and Kara Walker .The Museum also boasts an internationally renowned collection of prints, drawings, and photographs from the 15th century to the present; European masterpieces by Sandro Botticelli , Rembrandt van Rijn , and Sir Anthony van Dyck ; distinguished American painting, sculpture, and decorative arts; one of the most important African collections in the country; and notable examples of art from the Ancient Americas, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. The BMA’s Sculpture Gardens feature a 100-year survey of modern and contemporary sculpture on nearly three landscaped acres in the heart of the city. Visit the museum’s website at … http://www.artbma.org