We are delighted to announce that Dr. Anna-Claudia Guimbous has kindly donated a collection of 250 vintage prints by her father, Erich Retzlaff, to the School of Art Gallery and Museum.
The photographs range from the 1930s to the 1970s including portraits of peasants and people at work, portraits of notables, such as West Germany’s first post-war Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, and photographs of architecture and landscape.
This donation means that the Museum now holds nearly 320 prints by Retzlaff making it the largest collection of his photography outside of Germany. This resource will support Christopher Webster van Tonder’s ongoing research into the life and work of Retzlaff and other German photographers of the mid-twentieth century. The collection will also be used in teaching both the practice and history of photography to our undergraduate and postgraduate students and will feature in exhibitions at the School of Art over the coming years.
Webster van Tonder’s research can be viewed at the following links including photos of the Retzlaff exhibitions held at the School of Art, Aberystwyth, and the German Historical Institute, London, during the winter of 2013/14.
http://users.aber.ac.uk/cpw/Site_2/Erich_Retzlaff.html
http://users.aber.ac.uk/cpw/Site_2/Exhibition.html
The following images are a small selection from the Guimbous donation.
Aberystwyth University School of Art Museum & Galleries 