- Year of birth, place
- 1947, Hoffnungsthal, Germany
- Role at the ZKM
- in the collection
- Biography
- Rudolf Bonvie was born in Hoffnungsthal in 1947. He studied (1968-73) at the Werkschulen, Cologne and (1975-78) in the Philosophy Faculty at Cologne University. He lives in Hoffnungsthal and Cologne.
Bonvie has been awarded many prizes for his work as a photographer. During the 1970s he combined large black-and-white images with fragments of text. He has also made installations using video and sound, often incorporating photographs and both text and images from newspapers. He especially eagerly reworked the images he found in the scandal sheets. Until the late 1980s Bonvie's pothographs have often been shown alongside drawings, many of the latter serving as preparatory material. Many of his most recent photographic series consist of narrow panels of over-painted images, in which monochrome coloured surface also play an important role. Bonvie's critical reflection on the medium of photography and its claim to objectivity is further underlined by the incorporation of blank spaces, black beams and emphatic enlargement.
Individual exhibitions (selection)
1973 Galerie Hinrichs, Lomar
1979 »Vorher - Nachher«, Kunstverein Gelsenkirchen
1982 »Die Jagd ist eröffnet ... «, Galerie Philomene Magers, Cologne, subsequently at Produzentengalerie, Hamburg
1985 »Fotoarbeiten, 1974-1984«, Kunsthalle Bielefeld
1988 »Rhapsodie nucléaire II«, Museum Follkwang, Essen
1990 Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, subsequently at Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken
1991 Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
1993 Galerie Rudolf Kicken, Cologne
1994 »Vorstellungsbilder und Seestücke«, Espace des Arts, Colombiers, subsequently Goethe Institut, Toulouse, Galerie Fotohof, Salzburg
1995 Städtische Galerie Villa Zanders, Bergisch Gladbach
1996 Panstwowa Galeria Szutuki, Sopot
1993 »Photographie/contre«, Triangle, Rennes, subsequently Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon
Group exhibitions (selection)
1975 »Akt 75, Kunstpreis Junger Westen«, Städtische Kunsthalle, Recklinghausen
1977 »Das Sofortbild-Polaroid«, Aktionsgalerie, Berne
1980 »Exploration of a Medium: Die Sofortbildfotografie«, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn, subsequently Kunstverein, Frankfurt/M
1983 »Photocollagen«, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin
1986 »Reste des Authentischen«, Museum Folkwang, Essen
1987 »Blow up«, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart
1989 »Das Foto als autonomes Kunstwerk«, Kunsthalle Bielefeld
1991 »Das Sammeln - Die Sammler«, Museum Folkwang, Essen
1993 »Photographie in der Deutschen Gegenwartskunst«, Museum Ludwig, Cologne; »Deutschsein?«, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; »Siemens Fotoprojekt 1987-1992«, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Neue Pinakothek, Munich
1994 »Another Continent«, Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo
1997 »Body and Soul, Fotografie und Video der 70er Jahre«, Kunstmuseum Bonn; »Deutschlandbilder«, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
[Frauke Syamken, 1997]
