SCHUBERTH AND SCHUBERTH

Design of the exhi­bi­tion: “The Eye of Brazil. Kurt Klags­brunn.“
Cura­tor: Andrea Winkel­bauer

from Decem­ber 5, 2018 to May 19, 2019 at the Jew­ish Muse­um Vien­na, Dorotheer­gasse 11, 1010 Vien­na

The pho­tog­ra­ph­er Kurt Klags­brunn, born in Vien­na in 1918, cap­tured mod­ern life in Brazil from 1939 until the 1970s. He pho­tographed the par­ties of the wealthy as well as the plea­sures of the lit­tle peo­ple. His mod­els were celebri­ties such as Orson Welles or Evi­ta Perón, but also new­ly­weds throw­ing bou­quets, shoeshine boys on the boule­vards or dreamy cof­fee lovers. The son of a Florids­dorf coal mer­chant and soc­cer offi­cial actu­al­ly want­ed to become a doc­tor, but had to change pro­fes­sions after flee­ing Aus­tria in 1938 in order to build a new life in exile. He chose the hob­by of his youth and quick­ly rose from self-taught pho­tog­ra­ph­er to pio­neer of soci­ety pho­tog­ra­phy. In addi­tion to his fash­ion, lifestyle and indus­tri­al pho­tog­ra­phy, he doc­u­ment­ed the devel­op­ment of Brazil and accom­pa­nied the emer­gence of the new cap­i­tal Brasil­ia. Kurt Klags­brunn died in Rio de Janeiro in 2005. Since then, his nephew Vic­tor Klags­brunn has been look­ing after the estate with more than 250,000 neg­a­tives. In 2017, he donat­ed part of his estate to the Jew­ish Muse­um Vien­na with let­ters, notes, pho­tos and oth­er mem­o­ries of the Klags­brunn family’s life in Florids­dorf and their escape to Rio.