ILSE BING
(German, 1899-1989)
Ilse Bing photographed the modern urban rhythm of Frankfurt, Paris and New York in the 1920s and 1930s. With her portable Leica in hand, she climbed the Eiffel tower, attended dance and circus performances, and roamed the streets. The resulting images - dynamic, fragmented, abstract, evocative, and atmospheric - were appreciated early on for their modern sensibility and were reproduced in many of the most popular magazines in Europe and the US in the late 1920s through the 1940s. These included among others; Frankfurt Illustrierte, Arts et métiers graphique, Vu, Harper's Bazaar, Le Monde, Regards, and L'Illustration. Similarly, the visionary galleries of the early 1930s, such as La Pléaide in Paris and Julien Levy in New York chose to exhibit her work alongside contemporaries Henri Cartier-Bresson, André Kertesz and Man Ray.
CHRONOLOGY
1899 Born in Frankfurt.
1920 University of Frankfurt studied mathematics and physics but changed to art history eventually pursuing a doctoral degree.
1928 Took up photography, to illustrate her dissertation on an architect.
1929 Purchased a Leica camera.
1929-30 Photographs reproduced in photo-essays for Frankfurter Illustriete's weekly supplement Das Illustriete Blatt.
1930 Moved to Paris.
1930's Published in VU, Harper's Bazaar, Le Monde, L'Illustration, Illustré, and Regards.
Photographs included in the Groupe Annuel des Photographes at La Pléaide in 1931, 1932, 1933, and 1938.
1932 New York gallerist Julien Levy included Bing's work in his Modern European Photography: Twenty Photographers exhibition.
1934 Experimented with solarization (which she discovered independently of Man Ray).
1936 Visited New York at the invitation of Carmel Snow and met Alfred Stieglitz. Solo exhibitions at Galerie Chasseurs d'Images, Paris and Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.
1937 Married pianist and musicologist Konrad Wolff. Photographs included in New York's Museum of Modern Art's History of Photography exhibition.
1940 She and her husband were interned in Pairs as enemy aliens.
1941 They immigrated to New York.
1947 Started using electronic flash and larger format Rollei camera.
1957 Began working exclusively in color.
1959 Quit photography, devoted herself to poetry composed in English, French, and German. Made collages and drawings that incorporated photographic elements.
1998 Died in New York.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2004-2005 Ilse Bing: Queen of Leica | Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
1998 Ilse Bing | Edwynn Houk, New York, NY
1996 Ilse Bing-Fotografien 1929-1956 | Suermondt-Ludwig Museum, Aachen, Germany
1994 Ilse Bing: Moulin Rouge, Paris, 1931 | Houk Friedman, New York, NY
Ilse Bing: Vintage Photographs | Galerie Zur Stockeregg, Zurich, Switzerland
1992 Ilse Bing: Frankfurt, Paris, New York | Houk Friedman, New York, NY
1989 Ilse Bing: Germany, Paris, New York | Edwynn Houk Gallery, Chicago, IL
1987 Ilse Bing: Paris 1931-1952 | Musée Carnavalet, Paris, France
Traveled:
Litchbild Galeries, Ingolstadt Alliance Française, New York, NY
1986 Ilse Bing: Three Decades of Photography | International Center of Photography, New York, NY
1984 Ilse Bing: Work from Three Decades | Light Factory, Charlotte, NC
Mains: photographies par Ilse Bing | La Galerie des Femmes, Paris, France
1983 Ilse Bing | Columbia Museum of Art, SC
1979 Ilse Bing: Vintage Photographs from the 1920s and 1930s | Simon Lowinsky Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Ilse Bing: Vintage Photographs from the 1930s | Allan Frumkin Gallery, Chicago, IL
Ilse Bing | Heusenstamm Stiftung, Frankfurt, Germany
1978 Ilse Bing | Council of the Arts, Las Vegas, NV
1976 Ilse Bing | Witkin Gallery, New York, NY
1958 Ilse Bing Photographs | Bennett College, Millbrook, NY
1955 Ilse Bing Photographs | New York Public Library, New York, NY
1953 Photographic Compositions by Ilse Bing | The American Institute of Architects, Washington, DC
1951 Ilse Bing Photographs 1931-1951 | New York Public Library, New York, NY
1950 Ilse Bing: études photographiques New York 1947-1950 | Galerie-Librairie Palmes, Paris, France
Ilse Bing | Galerie Pares, Paris, France
1949 Ilse Bing Photographs | Carroll-Knight Gallery, St. Louis, MO
1948 Ilse Bing Photographs | The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
1947 Ilse Bing exposition de photographie: visages et enfants des Etats-Unis | Galerie de l'Arc-en-Ciel, Paris, France
1939 Ilse Bing | Galerie Chasseurs d'Images, Paris, France
1936 Ilse Bing | June Rhodes Gallery, New York, NY
1933 Ilse Bing | American Library, Paris, France
1932 Ilse Bing | Gallery Trittler, Frankfurt, Germany
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2007 Paris in Transition: Photographs from the National Gallery | National Gallery, Washington, DC
2005 Town and Country: Modern Life in America | Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, MA
2004 French Photography of the 1930s and 1940s | Zabriskie Gallery, New York, NY
My America: Art from the Jewish Museum Collection, 1900- 1955 | Jewish Museum, New York, NY
Traveled: Memorial Art Museum, Rochester University, Rochester, NY
1999 Insight: Women's Photographs From the Collection of the George Eastman House | Rochester, NY
Traveled: Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithica, NY
1996 History of Women Photographers | New York Public Library, New York, NY
1989 The New Vision: Photography Between the World Wars | Ford Motor Company Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
1986 New Orleans Art Museum, New Orleans, LA
Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany
1984 Portraits of Artists: Faces of Photographers | San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
1983 Foire internationale d'art contemporain | Grand Palais, Paris, France
Figure de la danza | Teatro Municipale, Reggio Emilia, Italy
1982 Cinq années de la Photographie | Galerie Zabriskie, Paris, France
Facets of the Collection: Urban America | San Francisco Museum of Art, San Fransisco, CA
1981 Facets of the Collection: Portraits of Artists | San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Autoportraits Photographiques | Musée nationale d'art moderne, Paris, France
German Photographs of the 1920s and 1930s | Sander Gallery, Washington, DC
Facets of the Collection: Photography in France and England, 1920-1950 | San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA
1979 Tenth Anniversary Show | Witkin Gallery, New York, NY
Photography/Venezia '79 | organized by the Municipality of Venice and UNESCO, Venice, Italy
Photographs from the Israel Museum | Witkin Gallery, New York, NY
France Between the Wars: Photography and Sculpture | Zabriskie Gallery, New York, NY
1978 New Acquisitions | Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Diverse Images: The Photography Collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art | New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
Fleeting Gestures: Treasures of Dance Photography | International Center of Photography, New York, NY
French Photography: The New Spirit 1925-1940 | Gallerie Zabriskie, Paris
1977 Photographs from the Julien Levy Collection | Witkin Gallery, New York, NY
1976 New Acquisitions | Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Photographs from the Julien Levy Collection Starting with Atget | Art Institute of Chicago, IL Traveled:
International Center of Photography, New York, NY
Cincinnati Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH
Lakeview Academy of Arts and Sciences, Peoria, MI
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
1960 Fifteenth Annual Conference | Bennett College, Millbrook, NY
1943 Art in Exile | New York Public Library, New York, NY
1942 Photographs | Wildenstein Gallery, New York, NY
1939 Photographs | Kunstinddustri Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark
1938 Les Photographes | La Pléiade, Paris, France
1937 Photography 1839-1937 | Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1936 Exposition internationale de la photographie contemporaine | Musée des arts decoratifs, Paris, France
Louvre Museum, Paris, France
1934 Les Photographes | La Pléiade, Paris, France
XXIX Salon international d'art photographique | organized by La Societé française de photographie et de cinematographie, Paris, France
1933 Les Photographes | La Pléiade, Paris, France
XXVIII Salon international d'art photographique | organized by La Societé française de photographie et de cinematographie, Paris, France
Photographs of Studio Shall, Ilse Bing, and M. Jacques Azema | Maison Tiranty, Paris, France
Second Philadelphia International Salon of Photography | Pennsylvania Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
1932 Modern Photography | Galerie d'art contemporain, Paris, France
Modern European Photography: 20 Photographers | Julien Levy Gallery, New York, NY
Les Photographes | La Pléiade, Paris, France
Modern Photography | Plume d'Or, Paris, France
International Photography | Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
1931 Les Photographes | La Pléiade, Paris, France
Das Lichtbild (The Photograph) | Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
XXVI Salon international d'art photographique | organized by La Societé française de photographie et de cinematographie and Le Photo-Club, Paris, France
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2006 Ilse Bing: Through the Looking Glass. Larisa Dryansky. Edited by Edwynn Houk: Abrams, New York.
1998 Ilse Bing: Vision of a Century. Edwynn Houk Gallery: New York, NY.
1987 Ilse Bing: Paris 1931-1952. Françoise Reynaud, Bernard de Montgolfier.
Paris Musées, Musée Carnavalet.
1985 Photographers Encyclopedia International, 1839 to the present, A-K.
Michele and Michel Auer. Editions Camera Obscura: Hermance, Switzerland.
Ilse Bing: Three Decades of Photography. Nancy C. Barrett. New Orleans Museum of Art.
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Art Institute of Chicago, IL
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
Houston Museum of Art, TX
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Jewish Museum, New York, NY
George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
AWARDS
The Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement, (first recipient) National Arts Club, NY