CURATED: KARL MARTIN HOLZHÄUSER

Karl Martin Holzhäuser (*1944) studied at the Hamburg Hochschule für Bildende Künste from 1966 to 1969. In 1969/70, he worked as a photographer in Nuremberg and in 1970–72 as art director at the Vogelsänger Studios in Bielefeld. In 1970, he began his university career as a lecturer in photography at the University of Applied Sciences in Bielefeld, Germany, where he became professor of photography in 1975. His work was shown in international solo exhibitions. In 1994, he started to work with computer graphics and multimedia.

He is considered, together with his longtime mentor Gottfried Jäger, one of the most important representatives of generative or concrete photography.		

Holzhäuser has been creating a consistent body of work since the end of the 1960s. His art is rooted in the cultures of Concrete and Constructive Art, as well as the medium of photography and its tendencies for experimentation and design. His work can be seen as an experiment in the synthesis of art and technology, reflecting the play of colors, forms, space, and time within the medium of photography.


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ARTIST

EXHIBITION

MECHANO-OPTISCHE UNTERSUCHUNG, SERIE 3 is an artwork created by Karl Martin Holzhäuser. This specific piece is part of an artist's print edition, numbered as the first out of two, produced in 1975. 
Karl Martin Holzhäuser, a member of the international group Concrete Photography (Konkrete Photographie), has developed a consistently remarkable body of work through his artistic practices since the late 1960s. His art is influenced by two cultures: the culture of Concrete and Constructive Art, which he felt connected to from a young age, and the culture of photography as a medium, particularly its inclination towards experimentation and design. Holzhäuser's oeuvre can be seen as an experiment that visually synthesizes the cultures of art and technology. It explores the interplay of colors, forms, space, and time within the medium, constantly challenging its inherent ambitions. 
His early works, such as the MECHANO-OPTISCHE UNTERSUCHUNG created between 1965 and 1972, exemplify this approach. 
Holzhäuser continually seeks the latent image of time through photographs that do not aim to represent or reproduce the world as it appears. Instead, his photographs aspire to be visual themselves, intentionally returning to the essence of the medium and searching for the elemental in a world where fleeting moments have become a disconcerting reality. The previous associations between an artwork and its specific place, space, and time of creation have become irrelevant due to reproducibility and mass distribution. Globalization has already taken hold, and photography supports this process rather than halting it. However, it also offers an opportunity to play within this context and produce authentic contemporary images—signs that bolster individual and collective consciousness. Holzhäuser's works capture the fleeting moments in their own unique manner. He may work in darkness, but his medium is light.

Mechano-Optische Untersuchung, Series 3

The exhibition presents pioneers from different generations, early 1950s until today, working in the field of generative art. On view will be, among others, plotter drawings, generative photography, sculptures, and NFTs from 30 international artists. In collaboration with ELEMENTUM.ART.

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KARL MARTIN HOLZHÄUSER

ART

EXHIBITION