art book cologne GmbH & Co. KG
Deutzer Freiheit 107
50679 Köln
Germany
Opening hours (office and showroom):
Monday to Friday 8 – 17
info@artbookcologne.de
Phone: +49 221 800 80 80
Fax: +49 221 800 80 82
art book cologne, founded by Bernd Detsch in 1997, is a wholesale company and specializes in buying and selling high quality publications in art, art theory, architecture, design, photography, illustrated cultural history and all related subjects internationally. Our team includes specialists in art, culture, music, book trade and media but in spite of our diversity we have one common ground: the enthusiasm for unique art books.
We purchase remaining stocks from museums, publishers and art institutions. We sell these remainders to bookstores, museum shops, and art dealers all over the world.
Publisher | Hartmann Books |
Year | 2021 |
Cover | Hardcover |
Language | English, German |
ISBN | 978-3-96070-068-5 |
Pages | 176 |
Weight | 968 g |
More | |
Contributors | Klaus Honnef |
Type of book | Exhib'publication |
Museum / Place | Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte |
Article ID | art-45176 |
In 1986, the decade was halfway over. In April, the reactor in Chernobyl melted down, the Cold War was coming to an end, Helmut Kohl was chancellor, AIDS was just being perceived as a pandemic threat in Germany, and the affluent society of the Federal Republic of Germany was beginning to view consumption as a leisure activity. That year, Michael Kerstgens, then a student at the Gesamthochschule Essen (formerly the Folkwangschule), received a scholarship with the assignment to take a photographic look at the subject of leisure. He used it to observe West Germans engaging in their favorite leisure activities, including sports, fitness, soccer, partying, outdoor swimming, tennis, playing golf (and miniature golf), driving Golfs (and Opels), and shopping.
In his essay, Klaus Honnef describes the 1980s as the favorite decade of the West Germans. Compared to their compatriots in the German Democratic Republic, they were doing extremely well. While the GDR past has been the focus of many recent publications, this laconic documentary looks at the other side, precisely observing a relatively carefree West German society. The sweeping changes at the end of the decade were inconceivable—the here and now was more important and more entertaining!
For hose who lived through the ’80s in the FRG, the pictures of Michael Kerstgens are a (terribly-beautiful) trip down memory lane, for all others a mandatory visual tutorial!