NYAB Event - Karlheinz Weinberger "Vintage Prints: Belts, Jackets, Couples and More"

Karlheinz Weinberger "Vintage Prints: Belts, Jackets, Couples and More"

Kustera Projects Red Hook

This event has ended.

Karlheinz Weinberger (1921-2006) worked by day for most of his adult life in the inventory department at a Seimens-Albis factory in Zurich, Switzerland. In his free time, however, he escaped this monotony by immersing himself in photography. In the late 1940’s and 1950’s, Weinberger spent weekends and holidays (in Italy mostly) shooting a variety of scantily dressed male “athletes” as a member of the underground gay club “Der Kreis”, occasionally being published in the club’s self-published magazine using the pseudonym, “Jim”. Inspired by George Platt Lyons, Herbert List and Baron Von Gloeden, “Jim’s” images reveal a straightforward admiration for his model’s erotic physicality, but sometimes with a sly sense of humor. Working in relative obscurity and anonymity, Weinberger’s images began to be appreciated by a wider audience with the publication of “Karlheinz Weinberger: Photos 1954-1995” in 2000. This book, now a collector’s item, was embraced by an emerging cult of fashion stylists, culminating in the co-opting of the “Halbstark” style in a Versace Jeans Couture ad campaign by Steven Meisel. This exhibition will feature a selection of images from a recently discovered trove of vintage prints. Capitalizing on Weinberger’s own superb editing skills, these modest sized prints are organized by certain dominant themes: Jacket backs, Belt buckles, couples, male portraits, female portraits, and male nudes. Through his detail oriented gaze, Weinberger always brings a sophisticated synthesis of classical and modern sensibilities to his compositions. The gallery will be screening the documentary film ‘Halbstark’ (2004), the story of the first Rockers in Switzerland, by Adrian Winkler in January.