February 12, 1949
The Brooklyn Museum will open tomorrow (February 13) an exhibition of 34 photographs by Carl Strüwe, a German photographer now residing at Bielefeld, Germany. The exhibition will remain on view through March 20.
The photographs, made with an ordinary camera, reveal natural forms as seen through a simple microscope. The photographer does not intend to present these subjects as scientific data but to give a glimpse into a realm of surprising and fantastic forms which are intriguing and often inspiring in their unique and varing beauty.
The photographs often remind us of modern artists such as Klee or Kandinsky and yet they do no encroach upon the field of painting. Rather they suggest possible sources and explanation for modern abstract art, unearthing a whole world of beauty invisible to the naked eye. One photograph entitled “Circles and Lines” is actually the respiratory openings of a leaf. Another picture “Circles and Spirals” shows blood corpuscles and bacteria. Still another “Crystal Formation” reveals the fascinating tree-like structure of crystals of potassium chloride.
Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1947 - 1952. 01-03/1949, 024. View Original
