Exhibition organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

PRESS RELEASE

th Düsseldorf, 5 May 2015

Only Station in Germany: Horst: Photographer of Style The NRW-Forum Düsseldorf is presenting a comprehensive retrospective of Horst P. Horst, one of the most important photographers of the twentieth century and an icon of fashion pho- tography – from 11th February to 22th May 2016.

He was considered, along with and , to be one of the most important photographers of the twentieth century. He was viewed as a star by the rich and beautiful, who stood in line to be portrayed by him. He was the king of fashion pho- tography and a “magician of light.” Even Salvador Dalí designed sets for his photo shoot- ings: Horst P. Horst (1906–1999). From 11th February to 22 th May 2016, the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf is presenting in Germany a retrospective of the legendary photographer cu- rated by London's Victoria and Albert Museum. Horst: Photographer of Style presents 250 photographic works from sixty years of creative output, including his famous works as a Vogue photographer, portraits of stars such as Marlene Dietrich and Rita Hayworth, and also surrealistic and naturalistic photographs along with travel pictures. In addition, the touring exhibition includes sketch books, private letters and previously unpublished mate- rial.

King of Fashion Photography Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann, born in 1908 in Weißenfels an der Saale, traveled to in 1930 to work as an architecture student with Le Corbusier. There he began his career as a photographer: he met George Hoyningen-Huene, the head photographer of the French edition of Vogue. The young apprentice frequently posed as a for the established photographer. He achieved his own breakthrough as a photographer in 1932, when his portrait of the daughter of Sir James Hamet Dunn, an important art patron, appeared in the British edition of Vogue. In the same year, he received a personal invitation from Condé Nast to spend six months in New York photographing for the American edition of Vogue. His first portrait of a Hollywood actress – Betty Davis – was published by the Vogue-affiliated magazine Vanity Fair. There were subsequently portraits of such figures as Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Joan Crawford and Ginger Rogers. As the new star photographer of Vogue, he was active in the fashion centers Paris, London and New York; he photographed the first , such as Lisa Fonssagrives, who posed in dresses by the couturiers Coco Chanel or Jeanne Lanvin.

His elegant black-and-white photographs from the nineteen-thirties made him a master of light and shadow. He drew inspiration from contemporary artistic trends such as Surreal- ism and Dada. In addition to dramatic lighting, stylistic characteristics of this photo-artist were three-dimensional impact, classicist compositions and the idealization of beauty. The model and actress Carmen Dell'Orefice once said that no one knew better than he how light had to fall on an object.

PRESS RELEASE | Page 1/2 Exhibition organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

From Bohrmann to Horst P. Horst In 1939 – still before the Second World War – his best-known photograph was created in Paris: the Mainbocher Corset. In 1943, he joined the United States Army, became an American citizen and changed his name from Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann to Horst P. Horst. He remained in the USA and died at Palm Beach, Florida in 1999 at the age of 93.

Expressive Colored Photography After the Second World War, fashion photography changed: color entered magazines, and the public sought naturalness rather than staged glamor. Horst P. Horst based his color photographs on the juxtaposition of blocks of color. He created clear and luminous arrangements. These pictures are documents of a specific era in American life and fash- ion—and at the same time, they are timeless. Many of his color photographs have only become accessible in the recent past; they count as the biggest new discovery of the exhibition Horst: Photographer of Style.

Massive Lifetime Oeuvre Horst P. Horst continues to be regarded as one of the fashion photographers of the twen- tieth century who had the deepest influence on style. The uncompromising master left behind more than 22,000 works; his shootings often took days until he was fully satisfied. “We could have filled five exhibitions,” says Susanna Brown, a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum who organized Horst: Photographer of Style.

NRW-Forum Düsseldorf | press office Christina Müller und Viviana Kleinert t: +49 (0)211. 89 266 81 e: [email protected] PRESS REALEASE | Seite 2/2