Biography
Born Berlin, Germany, January 26, 1897. Died Rome, Italy,
July, 4, 1969. Received secondary school certificate from
the Askanisches Gymnasium, 1913. Drafted into Ger-
man army, 1916–1918. Moves to Amsterdam to join
Paul and Lena Citroen, 1918. Marries Lena Citroen,
- Opens the Fox Leather Goods Company, 1922.
Birth of daughter Lisette, 1922. Birth of son Heinz, 1925.
Birth of son Yorick, 1932. Exhibition at the Kunstzaal
van Lier, 1932. Moves to Paris, 1936. Exhibition at
Galerie Billier, 1936. Photographs published inVerve, - First work at FrenchVogue, 1936. Covers Paris
fashion forHarper’s Bazaar, 1939. Moves to New York
to work forHarper’s Baazar, 1941. JoinsVogue, 1944.
Individual Exhibitions
1978 Erwin Blumenfeld; Witkin Gallery, New York, New
York
1988 Erwin Blumenfeld: Dada Collage and Photography;
Rachel Adler Gallery, New York, New York
1989 Erwin Blumenfeld; Museum fu ̈r Kunsthandwerk und
Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany
1996 Erwin Blumenfeld: A Fetish for Beauty; Barbican Art
Gallery, London, England
Selected Group Exhibitions
1993 Paul Citroen and Erwin Blumenfeld; The Photogra-
phers’ Gallery, London, England
Selected Works
Momie vivante, 1932
Nude under Wet Silk, c. 1937
Carmen the Model for Rodin’s ‘‘The Kiss’’, 1937
Portfolio deVogue: La Tour Eiffel, FrenchVogue, 1939
Nude in Artificial Snow, 1949
Spring Fashions/Do Your Part for the Red Cross, American
Voguecover, 1945
1950: Mid-century Fashions, Faces, Ideas, AmericanVogue
cover, 1950
In hoc signo vinces, 1967Further Reading
Blumenfeld, Erwin.Durch tausendja ̈hrige Zeit [Autobiogra-
phie]. Frauenfeld: Huber, 1976; asEye to I: Autobiogra-
phy of a Photographer. Translated by Mike Mitchell and
Brian Murdoch. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1999.
Blumenfeld, Erwin.Meine 100 Besten Fotos. Bern: Benteli,- AsMy One Hundred Best Photos. Text by Hendel
Teicher, translated by Philippe Garner with an introduc-
tion by Maurice Besset. New York: Rizzoli, 1981.
Blumenfeld, Yorick.The Naked and the Veiled: The Photo-
graphic Nudes of Erwin Blumenfeld. London: Thames
and Hudson, 1999.
Ewing, William, and Schinz, Marina.Blumenfeld: A Fetish
for Beauty. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1999.
Ewing, William.The Idealizing Vision: The Art of Fashion
Photography. With a preface by Anna Wintour. New
York: Aperture Foundation, 1991.
Liberman, Alexander.The Art and Technique of Color
Photography. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1951.
BODY ART
At the end of the 1960s, artists in the United States
and Europe began using their own bodies as the
material and instruments of the artistic work. Dec-
ades before, actionist elements were already increas-
ingly important, especially under the influence of
experimental theater and the reception of the histor-
ical avant-garde of the second and third decades
of the twentieth century. Hans Namuth’s photo-
graphs of Jackson Pollock painting his Abstract
Expressionist canvases played a key role in this deve-
lopment; these images had a catalyzing influence
on artists as different as the French ‘‘Art Informel’’
figures Georges Mathieu (1921–) and Yves Klein
(1928–1962), the Japanese Gutai Group, the Ame-
rican ‘‘Happenings’’ artist, Allen Kaprow (1927–),
and the Vienna Actionists (Wiener Aktionismus),
both on their performance and on their stated doc-
trines. Body artists pursued the fusion of art and life
that was typical of the 1960s and 1970s to its very
apex. Practitioners differed considerably and distin-
guished their use of the body in its social, sexual,
cultural, and political meaning. Though the actions
or performances usually took place before audiences
or in private venues including the studio, photogra-
phy was an essential component, recording, docu-
menting, and codifying the activity. Although film
and video were other important components, it is the
still images that have come to stand in for the tem-
poral action, giving Body Art its face to the contem-
porary art world. Next to the alternately poignant
and humorous self-examination of Vito Acconci
(1940–) stand the physical and psychic extremes ofBODY ART