Mies van der Rohe and Photography - Villa Grisebach Auktionen ...

PRESS RELEASE
Mies van der Rohe and Photography
In the run-up to the upcoming photography auction on June 4, 2009
Curt Rehbein / Mies van der Rohe. GLASS SKYSCRAPER. MODEL OF AN UNREALIZED PROJECT.
Vintage. Gelatin silver print. 1922. 9 1/2 x 7 1/8 inches
April 16 to June 3, 2009 at Villa Grisebach
Photography Department, Fasanenstraße 73, Opening hours see www.villa-grisebach.de

Berlin, March 25 2009: Icons of the history of architecture on view at Villa Grisebach: A group of
more than two dozen photographs illustrating the work of architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
(1886-1969) will be offered as part of the upcoming photography auction in early June. In the run-up
to the sale, the photographs will be presented in the exhibition “Mies van der Rohe and Photography”,
on view at Villa Grisebach from April 16 to June 3, 2009.
The top lot is a photograph by Curt Rehbein of 1922 showing Mies' famous model of a glass
skyscraper. Mies designed this building for a fictitious location shortly after the competition for the
“Tower House at Friedrichstraße” (1921). The model is programmatic for his revolutionary handling
of a multiply curved form as well as the use of glass instead of traditional wall material. In addition
to this rare print, Villa Grisebach will offer two original glass negatives of the same motif as well
as a variation.
The auction will include photographs from Mies' early period, such as the Weissenhof settlement in
Stuttgart of 1927 and his pavilion for the World Fair in Barcelona (1929). There is an ongoing debate
in academic circles about the authorship of the famous photographs of the pavilion. Not least due to
the exceptional quality of the series, a congenial photographic translation of this key work of modern
architecture, the name of photographer Sasha Stone is being discussed. Of the sixteen-piece series
Villa Grisebach will offer eleven prints in the auction on June 4, 2009. Other works depict Mies’
aforementioned contribution to the competition “Tower House at Friedrichstraße”, also referred
to as “Wabe” (honeycomb), his design for the memorial at Neue Wache, the residential houses in
Afrikanische Straße, Lemke House in Hohenschönhausen, and the drinking hall in Dessau which
was dismantled in the 1970s.
Provenance:
All the works in the exhibition are from the bequest of Eduard Ludwig (1906-1960), an architect
and former Bauhaus student, who worked as an assistant to Mies van der Rohe. Both men kept a
life-long friendship. Ludwig had enrolled as a Bauhaus student in 1928. His teachers were Wassily
Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Josef Albers, Walter Peterhans and Mies. After earning his degree in 1932,
Ludwig’s first job was at the Bauhaus building department. After the closing of the school in
September 1932, Ludwig worked at Mies’ office in Berlin and, since 1935, also at the studio of
Lilly Reich. Today, documents from Ludwig's bequest are held in the collections of The Museum
of Modern Art, New York, Werkbundarchiv, Berlin, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, and Bauhaus
Foundation in Dessau, among others.
Franziska Schmidt
For further information please contact Franziska Schmidt, phone +49-30-885 915-27,
E-mail f.schmidt@villa-grisebach.de or visit www.villa-grisebach.de
Villa Grisebach Auktionen GmbH
Fasanenstraße 25 · D-10719 Berlin
Telefon: +49-30-885 915-0
Telefax: +49-30-882 4145
auktionen@villa-grisebach.de
www.villa-grisebach.de