August Sander - On the 150th Anniversary of His Birth
To mark the 150th anniversary of August Sander’s birth, the Photographic Collection/Culture Foundation of Sparkasse KölnBonn is presenting a comprehensive retrospective of a photographer whose vision continues to resonate to this day.
A special focus is placed on Cologne. Sander lived and worked in the city for more than 30 years; its architecture, cultural life, Carnival, and the Cologne Group of progressive artists provided him with a rich creative environment. For the first time on this scale, the series **“August Sander’s Photographic Studio, Cologne-Lindenthal”**—created between 1930 and 1942/43—is being presented. It offers a glimpse into the Sander family’s living and working environment—intimate, tranquil, and marked by the passage of time. Complementing the exhibition, newly recorded radio lectures written and broadcast by Sander for WDR in 1931 can be heard in the exhibition space.
The exhibition showcases Sander not only as a great portraitist but also as an attentive observer of social issues—including work, the body, technology, and everyday life. Collections such as **“Studies”**, **“Man”**, and **“Man and Machine”** reveal how closely he observed gestures, postures, and especially hands—small details that, in his work, speak volumes. Landscapes, botany, and travel are also part of the exhibition: from the Westerwald to the Rhine region, the Siebengebirge, and the Eifel, all the way to Sardinia, where Sander traveled in 1927 with the writer Ludwig Mathar. Over 300 negatives were taken there—a rare photographic record of an island that was little-visited at the time.
The result is a multifaceted encounter with August Sander: as a Cologne-based photographer, as a chronicler of his time, and as an artist who captured people, places, and objects with great precision. The exhibition is part of the anniversary program **50 Years of the Sparkasse KölnBonn Cultural Foundation 1976–2026** and is supported by the Kunststiftung NRW.
A special focus is placed on Cologne. Sander lived and worked in the city for more than 30 years; its architecture, cultural life, Carnival, and the Cologne Group of progressive artists provided him with a rich creative environment. For the first time on this scale, the series **“August Sander’s Photographic Studio, Cologne-Lindenthal”**—created between 1930 and 1942/43—is being presented. It offers a glimpse into the Sander family’s living and working environment—intimate, tranquil, and marked by the passage of time. Complementing the exhibition, newly recorded radio lectures written and broadcast by Sander for WDR in 1931 can be heard in the exhibition space.
The exhibition showcases Sander not only as a great portraitist but also as an attentive observer of social issues—including work, the body, technology, and everyday life. Collections such as **“Studies”**, **“Man”**, and **“Man and Machine”** reveal how closely he observed gestures, postures, and especially hands—small details that, in his work, speak volumes. Landscapes, botany, and travel are also part of the exhibition: from the Westerwald to the Rhine region, the Siebengebirge, and the Eifel, all the way to Sardinia, where Sander traveled in 1927 with the writer Ludwig Mathar. Over 300 negatives were taken there—a rare photographic record of an island that was little-visited at the time.
The result is a multifaceted encounter with August Sander: as a Cologne-based photographer, as a chronicler of his time, and as an artist who captured people, places, and objects with great precision. The exhibition is part of the anniversary program **50 Years of the Sparkasse KölnBonn Cultural Foundation 1976–2026** and is supported by the Kunststiftung NRW.
Dates
Good to know
Price info
Price adult: €7.50
Price reduced: €4.50
