Otto Umbehr (Umbo)
On the work
Hommage à Arp, ca. 1950
Vintage silver print
20 x 30 cm
Collection of five photographs created in the mid 1950s showing:
Portrait Hans Arp, 1955, 14 x 9 cm
Sculptures of Hans Arp, 1955, 18 x 12 cm
Hans Arp in conversation with Carl Buchheister, 1955, 12 x 18 cm
Ceiling in the reception area of the editorial team of Life, ca. 1950
Vintage silver print
20 x 30 cm
Umbo (Otto Umbehr) is without doubt one of the pioneers of the New German Photography.
Even during the Bauhaus era he became one of the protagonists of the avant-garde movement.
Umbo's work is of central importance primarily in relation to the photographic portrait which has been dynamised visually – of which he is considered to have been the inventor – and in the field pf photojournalism.
The present photographs show, with one exception, portraits of Hans Arp and of his sculptures. The works represent unique artistic documents which greatly enrich the collection of the Arp Museum.
The photos were a generous gift from Umbo's estate and were donated to the museum by the artist's daughter Phyllis Umbehr.
Otto Umbehr was born in 1902 in Düsseldorf, he died in 1980 in Hannover.