Kehrer Publishing presents ‘Connoisseurs & Academies’ by Karen Knorr
The ninth edition of Photo London took place from 16 through 19 May 2024 at Somerset House – once again showcasing extraordinary photographic works accompanied by a program with talks, book signings, and events in the heart of London. Also taking part was Kehrer Publishing, which presented the illustrated book ‘Connoisseurs & Academies’ by Karen Knorr – a photographic survey of the magnificent architectural settings of museums, manor houses and academies.
Karen Knorr’s photographic series entitled ‘Connoisseurs & Academies’ brings back a kaleidoscope of memories: photographed between 1986 and 2005 with an analog camera, her images invite us to immerse ourselves into the intricate world of the history of museums and stately homes, of objects, paintings, connoisseurship, and the structures of academies. The use of animals as an allegorical motif is today embedded in Knorr’s practice, but they first appear in ‘Connoisseurs’, where a chimpanzee becomes the ‘Genius of the Place’.
We read on the website: “Karen’s work developed a critical and playful dialogue with documentary photography, using different visual and textual strategies to explore her chosen subject matter that ranges from the family and lifestyle to the animal and its representation in a museum context.”
In 1986, her work ‘Connoisseurs’ used color to explore connoisseurship regarding authenticity, heritage and art in England. To this end, she introduced elements and staged events in the architectural interiors of Chiswick House, Osterley Park House and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. The use of text and captioning appeared as a device to slow down consumption of the image and to comment on the received ideas of fine art in museum culture. These strategies still appear in her photography today alongside digital collages of animals, objects and social stakeholders in museums and architecture challenging the authority and power of cultural heritage sites in Europe and more recently in India.
Karen Knorr was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, raised in San Juan Puerto Rico, and educated in Paris and London. She has taught, exhibited her work and held lectures internationally, including at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, University of Westminster, Goldsmiths, Harvard and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Karen Knorr’s (b. 1954) works are in the collections of the Tate and Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, the SFMOMA, the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, and the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP) in Bangalore, to name a few.
PHOTO LONDON EXHIBITION
Sundaram Tagore Gallery, pavillon, G24
The artist exhibited with Sundaram Tagore Gallery at the fair as well as in the group exhibition Fields of Vision at Cromwell Place. Across the two sites, works were on display from the brand new series Scavi and recent editions to India Song.
Karen Knorr ‘Connoisseurs & Academies’
Texts by Sabina Jaskot-Gill, Jean Wainwright, designed by Kehrer Design (Laura Pecoroni),
cloth hardcover with dust jacket, 24 x 30 cm, 144 pages, 59 color illustrations.
ISBN 978-3-96900 - 157-8, € 48.00 / US$ 56.00
Exhibitions:
Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York City, 25 April – 01 June 2024
Photo London 2024 with Sundaram Tagore Gallery
Paris Photo 2024 with Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris, and Augusta Edwards Fine Art, London
Photographing 80s Britain: A Critical Decade Tate Britain, London, 21 Nov 2024 – 05 May 2025
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