René Groebli was born in Zürich in 1927. He studied photography with Hans Finsler at the Zürich University of the Arts and went on to become one of the greatest black-and-white photographers and one of the most subtle masters of the darkroom.
In the early 1950s, he worked worldwide as a photojournalist for Life, Picture Post and various other international illustrated magazines and agencies. When he was only 26 years old, in 1953, he was invited to take part in the legendary exhibit The Family of Man, which was curated by Edward Steichen for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and later shown in numerous museums worldwide. His photographic love letter The Eye of Love of his belated honeymoon is in the MoMA's collection. In 1954, Groebli was accepted as a member of the Academy of Swiss Photographers - along with Robert Frank. In Germany his talent was discovered by the famous photographer Otto Steinert, founding member of the legendary avantgardistic group fotoform and René Groebli’s ‘Bewegungsbilder’ were exhibited 1951 and 1954 in his exhibits subjektive fotografie. He was an innovator with his color photography work as well. His pioneering work earned him the title Master of Color in 1957 in the renowned American magazine Color Annual. Indeed, René Groebli counts among the most experimentative personalities in the history of photography. He gained attention with his fascinating movement studies and avant-garde color photos, which are represented today in many international collections.
EARLY WORK is a photographic overview from 1945 to 1955, from the time as a photo reporter in the Middle East, from the series Rail Magic, The Eye of Love, from travel photography, portraits, still lifes ... everything in black and white, photographed with a Leica and a Rolleiflex, light pictures with an incomparable subjective-poetic, innovative visual language, which were far ahead of the time and therefore only became glory much later and honor for René Groebli.
The exhibit comprises 132 black and white photographs, artist proofed, framed in sizes from 40x 50 cm to 105x 83 cm. The exhibit is ready for hanging.
High resolution scans of a variety of images will be made available for the purposes of PR, invitations and posters. Marketing texts, a CV, photograph captions, as well as texts and quotations by René Groebli about his life, photography, and work will likewise be made available as editable files in both German and English.
The exhibit is accompanied by the book EARLY WORK, published by Sturm & Drang Publishers, Zürich, Switzerland 2015, (160 pp., 150 ills. in duotone, hardcover ), and can be ordered via BuchsteinerArtManagement.
Additional information available upon request.
