HAUSER & WIRTH TO REPRESENT THE ESTATE OF AUGUST SANDER
Hauser & Wirth has announced that it will represent the estate of photographer August Sander in collaboration with the artist’s great-grandson Julian Sander of Galerie Julian Sander in Cologne. The celebrated twentieth-century photographer is best known for his portraits, specifically his series “People of the Twentieth Century,” which he divided into seven sections: the Farmer, the Skilled Tradesman, Woman, Classes and Professions, the Artists, the City, and the Last People (the homeless).
Born in Herdorf in 1876, Sander first learned about photography by assisting a photographer at a local mine and then became a photographer’s assistant while serving in the military from 1897 to 1899. In 1901, he began working for a studio in Linz, Austria, and later set up his own studio in Cologne. Sander published his first book, Face of Our Time, in 1929. The book was seized and its plates were destroyed by the Nazi regime. In 1944, his studio was destroyed in a bombing raid.
Over the course of his six-decade career, Sander created tens of thousands of negatives. A selection of photographs from his portfolio “People Who Came to My Door” will be on view in New York in the exhibition “Serialities,” opening on February 18 at Hauser & Wirth’s 548 West 22nd Street location.
“We are honored and delighted to join Julian Sander in assuming the mantle as guardians of August Sander’s illustrious legacy,” Iwan Wirth, cofounder and copresident of Hauser & Wirth, said. “A decade ago, when our gallery presented the exhibition ‘Someone Else With My Fingerprints,’ it became crystal clear that Sander was not only a giant of the photographic medium, but one of the most revolutionary artists of the twentieth century. His visionary approach to documenting people and places challenged accepted notions of what we are and how we live. He broadened perception. And his contributions continue to shape the way artists—including many represented by our own gallery—seek to interpret our world today.”
