matthias schaller . . .

Matthias Schaller was born in Dillingen, Germany, in 1965. Over the last decade he has

been widely exhibited and published in Europe but “Elfering -1642” will be his first U.S.

gallery show.

Beginning in 2000 with his photographic study of Andreas Gursky’s studio, Schaller has

focused almost exclusively on people-less interiors. Whether photographing

photographers’ and architects’ studios (series Werkbildnis I and II) , Cardinals’ desks of

the Roman Curia in the Vatican (Purple Desk), Venetian interiors on the Grand Canal

(Controfacciata), 150 Italian opera houses (Fratelli d’Italia), artists’ palettes (Das

Meisterstück), original astronaut suits (Disportraits), or the architecture of Oscar

Niemeyer (As Curvas), Schaller’s series or sequences engage with the spirit of objects and

place and convey the notion that the marks we leave, the objects used, or the

environment inhabited says as much about the selected individual as their physical

presence. All his different works follow this strategy of indirect portraiture.

The title “Elfering – 1642” refers to the famous German collector, Gert Elfering, and the

number allocated by Christie’s to Elfering’s single owner sale in October of 2005. The

auction comprised 135 works that Elfering had defined as the distillation of his interests,

and featured the most famous pictures by the masters of fashion and editorial

photography – Irving Penn, Helmut Newton, Richard Avedon - as well as works by Man

Ray, Thomas Struth, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Robert Mapplethorpe. The sale fetched over

$7 million and its success signaled the ascension of the editorial/fashion genre to the

highest levels of price and desirability in photography.

A longtime admirer of Schaller’s work, it occurred to Elfering that before parting with the

masterpieces in his collection he should commission Schaller to photograph the work in

Christie’s New York showrooms. In this way he would have an original new body of work

as well as a unique souvenir. The idea resonated with Schaller who observing the work

laid out on the floor prior to hanging saw this rather than the actual wall hanging as the

singular metaphor for the event.

In this way and as a completed series, Schaller’s photographs encompass the many

complexities and ironies of the concept while at the same time incorporating the power

of the objects about to be sold into their own luminous interiors. The finished works –

beautiful, compelling, and intriguing pictures in their own right - stand as a remarkable

example of enlightened patronage while remaining resolutely true to Schaller’s own

vision of creating a portrait of both a collection and a collector.

This summer Schaller will present his series “Das Meisterstück ” in the Picasso

Museum in Münster/Germany.

In 2011 the Cini Foundation in Venice/Italy will organize on occasion of the 54th

Biennial of the Arts an anthology show of his work from 2000-2009, accompanied

by the book “Disportraits ” with introduction and interview by Germano Celant.

Books on Matthias Schaller:

The Mill (2007), Controfacciata (2008), Purple Desk (2009), all with Steidl publishers.

For more information:

www.danzigerprojects.com

www.matthiasschaller.com