MuseumZeitraum Leipzig

Sophie Vogt, Director

Opening September 2009. (New date. Read announcement.)
zeitraum (tsite'-roum) n. - period or space (of time).
Welcome to MySpace/MuseumZeitraum Leipzig. MuseumZeitraum is dedicated to the life, the work and the continuing legacy of the pioneering German modernist Johann Dieter Wassmann (1841-1898).
Born in Leipzig, Johann became witness to unparalleled societal upheaval wrought by the industrial revolution. Fearing a less humanitarian world, and uncertain of the changing roles of science, medicine, religion, education, cosmology and time, he bequeathed a unique gift to future generations.
As a sewerage engineer, he participated in the development of a more modern and scientific approach to the control of infectious disease. As a lecturer at the University of Leipzig, he advocated a greater dialectic, concerned as he was at the decline of liberal education. But Johann’s lasting legacy can be seen in his private devotion to his art.
In 1881, he set out to combine his father's vocation - carpentry - with objects and images he collected for their visual poetry, creating boxed works that trace his speculations on an unsettling new world. This body of work builds on the tradition of German wunderkammern and 17th century Dutch perspective boxes to draw the viewer into the mind of a ubiquitous thinker.
Throughout the 1890s, he continued to expand the visual vocabulary of these assemblage works, but he also began to experiment with photography, using both a bulky glass-plate view camera, as well as several of the newly developed hand-held roll-film cameras. Over an eight-year period he documented the landscapes, streetscapes, architecture and interiors of eastern Germany, in a style that extended beyond the topographic traditions of the day.
The photographic works presented here on our MySpace site provide the missing link between the meticulous, but still largely prescriptive street imagery of mid-19th century photographer Charles Marville, and the lyrical melancholy of Eugene Atget in the early 20th century. As a predecessor to his fellow countrymen Heinrich Zille and August Sander, Johann discreetly anticipated what vast potential the photographic arts held for the modernist era.
The historic repatriation agreement recently signed between MuseumZeitraum and the Wassmann Foundation (see blog) sets the stage for the long-awaited return to Germany of Johann Dieter Wassmann's works in the lead-up to our September 2009 opening. Stay up-to-date with the museum's construction progress by clicking on our "pics" link to the right, where you’ll also find works from the museum’s archives.
MuseumZeitraum Leipzig is generously supported by the Wassmann Foundation, Washington, D.C. A very special thanks to our dear friends at PRADA and COMME des GARÇONS.
MySpace Blog
MuseumZeitraum Leipzig Website
MuseumZeitraum Leipzig Blog
MuseumZeitraum Leipzig YouTube
Johann Dieter Wassmann - A Carpenter's Tale
Today's Weather in Leipzig
Leipzig Documentary Film Festival
Universität Leipzig
Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig
The recently-installed crypt of Johann Dieter Wassmann (1841-1898), MuseumZeitraum Leipzig.
DAS EISENBAHN portfolio, 1895-1897. Albumen silver prints.
Johann Dieter Wassmann, Freundschaftstempel, Potsdam, 1896.
Johann Dieter Wassmann, Half-Timber House, Quedlinburg, 1897.
Johann Dieter Wassmann, Freyburg, 1897.Johann Dieter Wassmann, Weinbergterrassen, Park Sanssouci, Potsdam, 1897.Johann Dieter Wassmann, Berlin, 1897.Johann Dieter Wassmann, Nikolaikirche, Leipzig, 1894.Der Ring des Nibelungen (Ring Cycle) 1895-1897