Höfer, Candida
Ausstellungskatalog, Calais, Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle de Calais, 2001.
München
Schirmer/Mosel
2001
First edition
88 p.
Printed paper-covered boards, with dust jacket
with 34 four-color plates
Buch, Katalog
Text dt., engl. - Includes an illustrated detailed description of each of the twelve casts of Auguste Rodin’s bronze sculpture "Monument to The Burghers of Calais" (1884-89). Both the exhibition and book document the results of a commission awarded by the City of Calais to Candida Höfer in 2000. From the publisher: "A story from the Hundred Years War between England and France passed on in ancient chronicles has fascinated writers and artists up until the 20th century: "In 1347, during the siege of Calais, King Edward III agreed to spare the population of the town on the condition that six of the most important citizens leave Calais bareheaded and barefoot, with a rope around their necks, carrying the keys to the town and the castle." It was one of those moments of history that are forever engraved in the world's collective memory. Commissioned by the City of Calais in 1884 and erected in 1895, Auguste Rodin created what is arguably his most famous bronze statue: The Burghers of Calais. A moving symbol of civic spirit and sacrifice, it also created a radically new type of monument devoid of all heroic transfiguration. With the twelfth cast of the Burghers, which was unveiled in Seoul in 1997, the authorized number of 'originals' was reached and the City of Calais decided to commission a new work on The Burghers of Calais - this time to a photographer. Since the late 1970s, Candida Höfer, born in 1944 and a graduate of the Becher class at Düsseldorf Academy, has been investigating public space in her work." (Antiq. Borelli, Albuquerque, NM, 04.2005).