b. Rheinbach, Germany 1963
Frank Breuer attended and studied photography at the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne and at the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts under Bernd Becher, a pioneer of the New topographics movement. Similar to the Bechers, Breuer focuses on isolating industrial structures–cooling towers, detached shipping trailers, electric poles–in barren landscapes utilizing the large format to compress the composition and emphasize the specificity of the objects.
In Warehouses (1995), Logos (1995), and Containers (2002), Breuer works in this very archival tradition to make portraits of the post-industrial, capitalist society – facades of distribution warehouses devoid of human presence, logos of commercial businesses in nondescript places, and compositions of neatly stacked shipping containers that resonate both a sense of displacement and familiarity.
In Poles (2004), Breuer’s typological process is apparent in his portraiture of American electric poles that are once again the subject in indeterminate and almost surreal settings that give charged meanings to the seemingly banal object of an urban landscape.
Breuer successfully isolates and captures the artificiality and object-ness of a non-place to reframe the individual signs which are then charged with a temporality and monumentality, leaving the object almost meaningless and alienated from its original context. Breuer’s work explores these ideas of the new topographies in a continuing globalized world.
Education
| 1996 | Meisterschüler (distinction of master student) under Professor Bernhard Becher |
| 1991-'98 | Studied at the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts with Professor Bernhard Becher |
| 1993 | Meisterschüler (distinction of master student) under Professor Arno Jansen |
| 1987-'93 | Studied photography at the University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, Faculty |
| Arts and Design with Professor Arno Jansen |
Teaching
| 2003-'04 | Visiting Lecturer on Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA |
Solo Exhibitions
| 2011 | Tunnels, Trailers, etc., ftc fiedler taubert contemporary, Berlin |
| 2008 | McNamara Gallery, Wanganui, New Zealand |
| Logos-Warehouses-Containers-Poles, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque | |
| 2007 | Frank Breuer Photographs, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis |
| 2006 | Frank Breuer – Containers & Poles, Gallery Luisotti, Santa Monica |
| Frank Breuer Photographs, Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, Iowa | |
| 2005 | Goethe Institut, Beijing and Hong Kong |
| Jousse Entreprise art contemporain, Paris | |
| 2004 | Containers & Poles, Fiedler Contemporary, Cologne |
| 2003 | Containers, Rocket Gallery, London |
| Warehouses and Logos, The Photographers‘ Gallery, London | |
| 2002 | Jousse Entreprise art contemporain, Paris |
| Pionèri con tutti – Beeldende Kunstmanifestatie, Hoofdvaartkerk, Hoofddorp | |
| Klaus Engelhorn 20/22 contemporary art, Vienna | |
| Galerie Ulrich Fiedler, Cologne | |
| 2001 | Paris Photo, booth |
| Feigen Contemporary, New York | |
| 2000 | Hallen, Galerie Ulrich Fiedler, Cologne |
| RLD – Raiser Lopez Designers, Stuttgart | |
| 1999 | Fünfzehn Denkmäler: Panzer und Kanonen (Fifteen Monuments: Tanks and Canons), rampe 003, Volksbühne, Berlin |
Group Exhibitions
| 2014 | Was war und was ist, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany |
| Industrial Worlds, MAST Gallery, Bologna, Italy | |
| An Artificial Wilderness: The Landscape in Contemporary Photography, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT | |
| 2011 | Global Photography-Occupancy, SI FEST, Savignano sul Rubicone, Italy |
| Public Works, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago | |
| 2009 | Auto Sueno y Materia, CA2M, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo Avda, Mostoles, Spain |
| 2006 | My Way, Jousse Entreprise art contemporain, Paris |
| Zeit Raum Bild. 10 Jahre Dokumentarfotografie Förderpreise der Wüstenrot Stiftung, Kulturforum Potsdamer Platz, Berlin | |
| 2005 | Musée de la Publicité, Paris |
| Slow Down, Pilar Parra & Romero, Galeria de Arte, Madrid | |
| 2004 | The Amazing & The Immutable, Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, MA |
| Rencontres de la Photographie 2004, Église des Frères Prêcheurs, Arles | |
| Regarde, Il Neige, Centre national d‘art et du paysage, Vassivière en Limousin | |
| 2003 | Circular, Rocket Gallery, London |
| Playing with the Scale, Centro Galegode Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela | |
| Modern Photographs from the Collection of Lila Acheson, Wallace, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York | |
| Wüstenrot Foundation Promotional Awards for Documentary Photography, 1999/2000, Technische Sammlungen, Dresden,Städtische Galerie Brunsbüttel | |
| 2002 | Konstruktion/Illusion, co berlin, Berlin |
| Industrial Photography – Peter Keetman Award 2002, Museum der Arbeit, Hamburg | |
| Wüstenrot Foundation Promotional Awards for Documentary Photography, 1999/2000, Kunstverein Ludwigsburg Galerie im Markgrafenschloss, Emmendingen Museum für Photographie, Braunschweig Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Cologne | |
| Setting the Scene – Architecture in Contemporary Photography, Museum für Neue Kunst / ZKM (Center for Art and Media), Karlsruhe Städtische Galerie Erlangen, Palais Stutterheim Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren | |
| The Big Projects – Dutch architecture policy in perspective, Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam | |
| TRADE – Wege und Werte im Welthandel heute, nederlands foto instituut, Rotterdam | |
| 2001 | Wüstenrot Foundation Promotional Awards for Documentary Photography, 1999/2000, Fotografische Sammlung Museum Folkwang, Essen |
| TRADE – Wege und Werte im Welthandel heute – Routes and Values in World Trade Today, Fotomuseum Winterthur | |
| "Wenn Berlin Biarritz wäre…" (If Berlin were Biarritz…), Museum Folkwang, Essen | |
| Counting Colour, Rocket Gallery, London | |
| interior exterior, Galerie Six Friedrich / Lisa Ungar, Munich | |
| 2000 | Négotiations, Centre Régional d'Art Contemporain, Sète |
| Zeitgenössische Positionen der Architekturphotographie (Contemporary Positions in Architectural Photography), Museum Ludwig, Cologne | |
| 1999 | Neues Sehen/ Neues Bauen (New Seeing, New Building), Galerie Ulrich Fiedler, Cologne |
| 1998 | gestern genau jetzt – Arbeiten einer photographischen Schule (yesterday right now works from a photography school), Special show of the SK Stiftung Kultur (cultural foundation), Art Cologne |
| 1997 | Werner- Mantz- Prijs 1997, Academie van Bouwkunst, Maastricht |
| 1994 | Denk ich an Deutschland… Deutsche Nationaldenkmale 1790-1990, (When I Think -95 of Germany… German National Monuments 1790-1990), Traveling show put on by the NRW Cultural Office |
| 1994 | 149,2 kbm, Bergisches Freilichtmuseum Lindlar (open-air museum) |
| 1993 | Ida Gerhardi Preis 1994, Städtische Galerie Lüdenscheid |
Bibliography
| “Frank Breuer Poles”, Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, Iowa, 2006 | |
| “Frank Breuer – Logos Warehouses Containers“, Fiedler Contemporary, Cologne, Jousse Entreprise, Paris, Schaden.com, Cologne, 2005 | |
| “Arles Rencontres de la Photographie 2004“, Actes du Sud, Arles, 2004 | |
| “Frank Breuer“, Marcus Verhagen in: Art Mothly 8/2003 | |
| “Juegos de Escala – Playing with the Scale“ , Centro Galegode Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela, 2003 | |
| “Pionèri con tutti – Beeldende Kunstmanifestatie", Stichting Haarlemmermeer 2002, Hoofddorp (NL) , 2002 | |
| Industriefotografie der Jetztzeit (Industrial Photography of the Present), Edition Braus, Heidelberg (D), 2002 | |
| In Szene gesetzt (Setting the Scene), Hatje/Cantz, Ostfildern (D), 2002 | |
| Wenn Berlin Biarritz wäre… (If Berlin were Biarritz…), Steidl-Verlag, Göttingen (D) 2001 "TRADE – Waren, Wege und Werte im Welthandel heute" (TRADE – Goods, Routes and Values in World Trade Today), Scalo-Publishers, Zurich, Berlin, New York, 2001 | |
| global:nrw – Paris Photo, Ministerium für Wirtschaft und Mittelstand, Energie und Verkehr des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Economy and Middle-Class, Energy and Transport), 2001 | |
| Promotional Awards for Documentary Photography 1999 / 2000, Wüstenrot Foundation, Ludwigsburg (D), 2001 | |
| “De industriele steppe“, Gert Jonkers in: Carp* magazine 06/2001 | |
| Kunst der Gegenwart (Art of the Present), Museum für Neue Kunst / ZKM Karlsruhe, Prestel, Munich / New York, 1997 |
Collections
| ZKM (Center for Art and Media) Karlsruhe – Museum für neue Kunst | |
| Museum Folkwang – Fotografische Sammlung, Essen | |
| Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt | |
| Heiting Collection, Amsterdam | |
| Estée Lauder company collection, New York | |
| Rheinisches Industriemuseum, Oberhausen | |
| Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York | |
| Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela | |
| Martin Z. Margulies Collection, Florida | |
| Gemeentemuseum Helmond | |
| Centre d‘Art Contemporain de Vassivière en Limousin | |
| Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa | |
| The Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis | |
| Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris |
Awards and Honors
| 2002 Traveling scholarship, awarded by the Kunststiftung NRW (Arts Foundation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia), Düsseldorf | |
| 1999 Promotional Award for Documentary Photography, awarded by the Wüstenrot Foundation, Ludwigsburg |