HANS NAMUTH (1915-1990)
Louise Nevelson, New York City, 1967
Print in Colors
10" x 13"
Hans Namuth was a German-born American photographer known for his portraits of famous artists such as Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol. Born on March 17, 1915 in Essen, Germany, he left his family behind in 1933 after having been detained by the Nazi regime. Settling in Paris, Namuth began working as a freelance photographer and later documented the outbreak Spanish Civil War. In danger both from Franco in Spain and Hitler in Germany, Namuth managed to escape from France in 1941, eventually arriving in the United States. In New York, he established himself as a photographer and opened a studio space. During World War II, the artist worked for US military intelligence and was later awarded with a Purple Heart. He went on to study with Josef Breitenbach and Alexey Brodovitch at the New School for Social Research after the war had ended. In 1950 Namuthâ€â„¢s photographs of Pollock cemented his reputation, and in the decades that followed he produced portraits of Willem de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Romare Bearden, and several others. The artist died on October 13, 1990 in East Hampton, NY. Today, Namuthâ€â„¢s photographs are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, MA, and the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, NY, among others.

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