Glamorous Images

The Museum Ludwig/Cologne shows works by society photographer Karl Schenker from the 1910s and 1920s. On view until 8 Januar 2017.

Karl Schenker (1886–1954): the “born portraitist of elegant people,” “a master of several mediums,” “stage director of women’s heads”—the press was enthusiastic about the photographs that made Karl Schenker one of the best-known society photographers in the 1910s and ’20s. Everybody who was anybody had their portrait taken in his Berlin studio on the famous Kurfürstendamm. After all, no one made their subjects look better, and there was no greater master of retouching. He wrapped actresses, dancers, and society ladies in tulle and furs before taking their picture—or he painted the fur into the picture afterwards.

The Museum Ludwig recently acquired around 100 portraits and is taking this as an occasion to trace Schenker’s life and work for the first time and to rediscover an unjustly forgotten artist. Around 250 works will be presented, including international loans: photographic portraits of once-famous women and men, fashion and wax figure photographs, magazine covers designed by Schenker, an original drawing, a painting, movie star postcards—even collectible images from cigarette packages.

Please find more information at Museum Ludwig