Board_Advisors_etc 3..5

his work practice resembles that of the Old Masters,
who were able to reproduce, in an enigmatic way,
space, light, and depth in their paintings. Yet Gel-
pke’s work is unmistakably contemporary and often
refers to the modern photographic masters.
Gelpke has said about his work:
In this visual age, when our consciousness of reality is
increasingly permeated by the actualities of television,
photography, and advertising, my aim is to present the
photographic-bureaucratic fact collector with a selection
of my reality clipping form an only apparent ‘‘pseudo-
reality’’ and thereby to bring about a new questioning
of reality.
(Contemporary Photographers,St. James Press)
At the end of the century, his work became more
overtly erotic, and he has experimented with shoot-
ing in color, as in the seriesFata Morgana.The
seriesAmokandFamilientag, while showing many
of Gelpke’s characteristic composition and fram-
ing, have the additional formal attribute of often
startling, oversaturated, but still realistic color.
For Gelpke, experiences are memories, signs,
symbols, levels, and geometric forms. As such, he
cannot ‘‘do’’ much with them; they are ‘‘nothing.’’
Only after the experiences become solidified in a
photographic composition can he begin to change
and modify them into a usable code system. He
uses codification—spontaneously and impulsive-
ly—to make the chaos of the world recognizable,
converting chaos through his images into an ele-
mentary order.
The Spanish photographer and writer Joan Font-
cuberta wrote:

Andre ́Gelpketendstospeakoftwocategorieswhenrefer-
ring to his work: the monologues (introspection) and the
dialogues (relationships with the external). There is no
opposition between them—they are complementary
because they basically try to exercise two distinct types of
vision upon the same reality: sensual vision and intellec-
tual vision.
(Contemporary Photographers,St. James Press)
In 1990, Gelpke relocated to Zurich to teach; he
has continued to collect his unique images into
increasingly experimental series of works that fea-
ture still lifes, portraiture, and landscapes com-
bined into suggestive and timeless narratives.

JohanSwinnen

Biography

Born on 15 March 1947. Studied photography with Profes-
sor Otto Steinert at the Folkwangschule, Essen, 1969–

1974. Photographer since 1974. Founding member of
      Visum Photo Agency, Essen-Hamburg, 1975–1978;

moved to Zu ̈rich, Switzerland in 1990; lecturer in photo-

graphy at the Ho ̈hern Schule fu ̈r Gestaltlung in Zurich.

Solo Exhibitions

1977 Andre ́Gelpke; Stedelijk Museum; Amsterdam, Nether-

lands

1982 Andre ́Gelpke; Werkstatt fu ̈r Fotografie; Berlin, Germany

1984 Andre ́ Gelpke; Centre Georges Pompidou; Paris,

France

1986 Andre ́Gelpke; Museum fu ̈r Photographie, Braunsch-

weig, Germany and traveling

1987 Andre ́Gelpke; Fotogalleriest; Oslo, Norway

1988 Fotofest; Texas Commerce Bank; Houston, Texas

Heim-Weh;Fotoforum; Hamburg, Germany

1989 Fotomuseum; Braunschweig, Germany

1990 Andre ́Gelpke; Museum Folkwang; Essen, Germany

and traveling to Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany

Nostalgia; Goethe-Institut, Brussels, Belgium

1992 Heim-Weh; Goethe-Institut Mu ̈nchen, Munich, Ger-

many and traveling

Group Exhibitions

1975 Landesbildstelle; Hamburg, Germany

1977 Recontres Internationales de la Photographie; Arles,

France

Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France

Sander Gallery, Washington, D.C.

1979 Fotografie nach 1945; Kunstverein Kassel; Kassel,

Germany

1980 The Imaginary Photo Museum; Kunsthalle, Cologne,

Germany

1982 Ku ̈nstler verwenden Photographie – Heute; Kunstverein

Ko ̈ln; Cologne, Germany

Place and Identity in European Photography; Rimini,

Italy

1984 Contemporary European Portraiture; Northlight Gal-

lery, Herberger College of Arts, Arizona State Univer-

sity; Tempe, Arizona

1988 Twentieth-Century Photography; Museum of Fine

Arts; Houston, Texas

1990 Otto Steinert und Schu ̈ler; Museum Folkwang; Essen,

Germany

1994 8 Fotografen zum gleichen Thema; Siemens Fotopro-

jekt; Sta ̈dtische Galerie, Nordhorn, Germany

1996 Die Klasse;Museumfu ̈r Gestaltung, Zu ̈rich, Switzerland

2002 Schupmann Collection - Fotografie in Deutschland nach

1945 ; Stadtmuseum Mu ̈nster; Muenster, Germany

Selected Works

Coney Island, New York, 1972

Adler, 1974

Angelique, 1976

Kanalschwimmer, 1977

Mann mit Brille, 1977

Leere Mitte, 1979

Kunstverein Ko ̈ln, 1979

Sylt, 1980

Death Valley, Nevada, 1980

Der schiefe Turm von Pisa, 1983

Bretagne, 1983

Houston, 1984

GELPKE, ANDRE ́