KARLHEINZ WEINBERGER

SUBSEQUENT ICONS

Exhibition dates: January 11 - February 25, 2024

Opening: Thursday, January 11th 6-8pm

SITUATIONS HENRY ST

127 Henry Street, New York, NY 10002

SITUATIONS presents Karlheinz Weinberger: Subsequent Icons, a selection of vintage photographs by Swiss photographer Karlheinz Weinberger (1921-2006). The exhibition focuses on the serial nature of Weinberger’s solo portraits of men from the late 1950s through the mid-1970s whom he invited into his makeshift studio in the apartment he shared with his mother. The men in these portraits—construction workers, street vendors, bicycle messengers, outsiders—span a spectrum of fully clothed, arms-crossed poses to campy and flirtatious, fully nude and reclined, while others mimic art historical postures. All of these images, though, reveal a palpable sense of tenderness between photographer and subject, revealing an expansive and uncritical take on the male form in an era when being photographed wasn’t such a casual, ubiquitous record as it is today. 

The photographs in this exhibition are framed as diptychs, triptychs, and quadriptychs featuring the same individual in each grouping. The intention is to highlight the serial nature of Weinberger’s practice. All of the images displayed were styled, shot and printed by the artist while he was alive. Weinberger’s subjects share an unconventional charisma that is more adequately conveyed through a series of photos, allowing him to transcend the limits of a single image. Viewed in this way, for example, one is able to search the expressions of a tattooed man as he strikes a similar stance in two photos, one while wearing underwear, and in another, without. 

Additionally, the photos of these men are an important component in understanding Weinberger’s most famous subjects, the “Halbstarke,” a loosely organized group of Swiss “rebels” in the late 1950s and early 1960s, carousing at local carnivals, motorcycle rallies, and on camping trips.  Although in a state of undress, the studio portraits of these men, with their tattoos, props, and clothing similarly betray their rebel souls, the common theme throughout Weinberger’s oeuvre. Comparatively, his photographs of the Halbstarke are documentary in style, while his portraits of men in the studio show a unique side to his practice. By using a studio portrait technique, he’s able to capture a more intimate and detailed portrait of each man. A full range of emotions are exposed while they’re performing, being watched and admired by Weinberger and now us. 

Though not a professional photographer—Weinberger worked as a warehouse stock manager—his subjects are portrayed with a distinctly gay male gaze, both carnal and artistic. For most of his adult life, Weinberger worked in the warehouse department of the Siemens factory in Zurich, Switzerland. On the weekends, he escaped his job’s monotony by immersing himself in photography. Self-taught, Weinberger rarely exhibited his photographs until his “discovery” during the final years of his life. Since then, his work has been the focus of many exhibitions in Europe and the United States.

We’d like to thank our collaborator in all of our Weinberger exhibitions, Bruce Hackney, U.S. Manager and Curator of the Karlheinz Weinberger Foundation, for helping to make this exhibition possible. We are additionally grateful to The Song Cave, who published a book of photographs titled Photographs: Together & Alone (edited by Ben Estes) which were featured in our first exhibition with Weinberger. Collier Schorr wrote an introduction for the publication titled “It Must Commence,” of which an excerpt can be read on our website and in full in the book. 

SITUATIONS HENRY ST is open to the public Thurs - Sun, 12 - 6PM. On view at 127 Henry Street, is a solo exhibition of photographs by Karlheinz Weinberger: Subsequent Icons, Jan 11 - Feb 25, 2024. 

SITUATIONS CHELSEA is open to the public Wed - Sat, 11AM - 6PM. On view at 515 W 20th Street, FL 3, is a solo exhibition of Masamitsu Shigeta: Jewelry Box, Jan 18 - Feb 24, 2024. 

SELECTED PRESS FOR SUBSEQUENT ICONS: