Karl Blossfeldt - Variations

How Karl Blossfeldt's plant photographs were disseminated in the popular media of the time, from pattern books to magazine spreads. In the 1890s, the Berlin artist, sculptor and teacher Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932) started to photograph plants, seeds and other illustrative material from nature for the purpose of teaching his students about the patterns and designs found in natural forms. His close-ups of the smallest plant parts, magnified up to 30 times their natural size, startle us as they dramatically highlight the geometrical and sculptural properties of plants. Published in 1928, his first collection of photographs, Urformen der Kunst (later translated into English as Art Forms in Nature) became an international bestseller and remains one of the most significant photobooks of the 20th century. Karl Blossfeldt: Variations is the first monograph to examine the reception of Blossfeldt's work. Drawing on unpublished materials, it analyses the photographs' replication in teaching materials, pattern books, art books and in the pages of the illustrated press. The six sections of the book trace the paths that Blossfeldt's legendary plant motifs took in their incarnations as specimens, illustrations, patterns, analogues, models and abstractions from 1890 to 1945. Thematic contemporary appraisals illustrating the rediscovery of Blossfeldt's motifs in design and architecture over the past 20 years complement this new perspective on the beloved German photographer. AUTHOR: Ulrike Meyer Stump is a lecturer in the Knowledge Visualisation program in the Department of Design at the Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland. Her work as a writer, editor, and curator focuses on the photographs of Karl Blossfeldt, contemporary photography, and the history of the photo book. She is the curator of the exhibition No Two Alike: Karl Blossfeldt, Francis Bruguiere, Thomas Ruff (Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati, September 2018 January 2019) and editor of its accompanying catalogue, author of Karl Blossfeldt: Working Collages (2001) and co-editor of Karl Blossfeldt: Aus der Werkstatt der Natur. 200 illustrations