Essay on Karl Blossfeldt

Essay by crystalstarHigh School, 10th gradeA-, January 2009

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Karl Blossfeldt

Karl Blossfeldt was born in Schielo, Unterharz, Germany on June 13th, 1865 and died in Berlin in 1932. He was an apprentice of artistic forms of iron casting in Magdesprung during 1881 to 1883. During 1884 to 1890, he studied art at the Institute of Royal Arts and Crafts Museum in Berlin.

During 1890 to 1896, he went to Italy and participated in a project of collection plant material for drawing classes. While doing this, Blossfeldt stated to document photographed plant samples. He got some of his photographs appear in Maurer's publications.

He was married twice; first with Maria Plank in 1898 then with an opera singer, Helene Wegener in 1912. He taught in Berlin at the Institute of Royal Arts and Crafts Museum in 1898 and was a professor there from 1921 to 1930. He got his works first exhibited in 1926 in Berlin at the Nierendorf Gallery.

In 1928, he published a book called Urformen der Kunst which created lots of controversies.

When I first saw Blossfeldt's works, I thought that he was taking photos of sculpture and not plants. Karl Blossfeldt works makes me feel isolated as his works are of an object that you would not usually see, instead of a group of familiar object.

I think that Blossfeldt's work relate to sculptures with its slim curvy shape as lots of his works looks like frameworks of gates you would see surrounding houses or statures in parks. Other of his works remind me of atoms and elements as it is of objects that you would not usually be able to see or notice.

When I look at Bloosfldt's work, I see lots of different shads of black and white three dimensional patterned sculptured-like objects. There are lots of different shades of black, grey and...