With an unflinching gaze, Anna (1936–2020) and Bernhard Johannes Blume (1937–2011) brought the petty-bourgeois world of postwar Germany into sharp focus. Everyday objects play a key role in this, appearing to spiral out of control in their images. In the photographs, the artists themselves appear as participants. Their humorous works are precise commentaries on social norms and themes that remain as relevant today as ever. The Kunstmuseum Ahlen is dedicating a major retrospective exhibition to this internationally renowned artistic couple and placing their work in a new, contemporary context: their large-format black-and-white photographs, Polaroid series, as well as drawings and objects from the estate of Anna and Bernhard Blume enter into a dialogue with international contemporary video art. The videos illustrate the evolution of media and, at the same time, demonstrate that the questions posed by Anna and Bernhard Blume—regarding identity, gender roles, partnership, and art—remain relevant today and must be raised with renewed urgency and subtle humor. Our supposed order of “things” remains an illusion, which the artist duo exposes in their provocatively chaotic and absurdly philosophical visual world. Hard to believe—a thing of impossibility!

The exhibition was created in collaboration with the Anna & Bernhard Blume Estate and in cooperation with the Städtische Galerie Bietigheim-Bissingen.

Curated by Dr. Anna Luise von Campe.