Stop Motion

Stop Motion

On the death of the Hamburg artist Claus Böhmler

There is a video by Claus Böhmler, which simply shows how a record is placed on a plate and the tonearm moves inwards until the next record is put on. Who would stare so long into the groove at home? But you remain seated in front of the video and watch the medium at work. This is the laconic joke with which Böhmler took every technology at its word. Born in Heilbronn in 1939, Böhmler was one of the first German media artists. He was a master student of Joseph Beuys and was early exhibited by the gallery owner Alfred Schmela. He participated in the “Medien-Documenta” of 1977 and had solo exhibitions at the Kölnischer Kunstverein, the Fridericianum in Kassel and twice at the Hamburger Kunsthalle. From 1974 to 2005 he was a passionate professor in Hamburg, with students such as Martin Kippenberger and Albert Oehlen. Nevertheless, his name is hardly known beyond his circle of companions. On the one hand, this is due to his lack of talent for self-marketing, and on the other, to the shape of his art. Böhmler was a master of the small form, for whom check paper and a children’s stamp with the Disney Pinocchio were sufficient to sound out the possibilities and limits of animated film. Someone who was so interested in the conditions of representability that it was all the more worthwhile to bring it back into the light. Last week Böhmler died in his apartment in Hamburg. kjr

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 27.02.2017, Nr. 49, S

Claus Böhmler presents his record archive on videotape, 1987. Photo: René Block, Drawing: Claus Böhmler