Uma Mulher Moderna: Fotografias de Gertrudes Altschul
Curatorship by Isabel Amado
[Casa da Imagem]
March 7 – June 20, 2015
A Modern Woman
Photographs by Gertrudes Altschul
Dry leaves, paper and plastic flowers, created in the small studio that Gertrude kept with her husband – skills brought along with her luggage from Germany as a survival tool, were in fact inspirational references, and which reframed through photography, result in a work of profound aesthetic rigor, including experiences such as superimposed negatives, construction of small scenes (table top) or simply direct takes, which even as such, continue to seek the loss of reference.
The solarized leaves, the lines, the contours of objects, all indicate a weight of respect full of expression – to the form, and what is understood by it; What is real? What is palpable? Her work offers total freedom for creation.
As it was for the majority of the photographers of the movement known as the Paulista School, photography was not the main activity of Gertrudes, but it was through it that she explored the concepts of craft, applied her artisanal experience and took advantage of one of the most modern instruments of that time, the photographic camera, as a resource of comprehension and a tool of transformation considered to be an artistic direction.
The solarized vultures are here transformed into seagulls, with the intention to poeticize the cruelty of survival, the branches that emerge squeezed on the right side of the image, show an unexplainable sensuality, the spider web reveals the net of the insect and is transformed into a veil.
Revisiting concepts became a habit in this artist’s life, who left her country of origin running from war, remaining one year without seeing her small son, who not by accident keeps Gertrude’s collection until today.
She wasn't the only, or the first. A woman in a strictly masculine club (and here I refer to the photography as a whole), is at a minimum uncommon and opens the way to deeper research into who these woman were.
[Text by Isabel Amado]
