1947 geboren in Hoffnungsthal lebt und arbeitet in Köln né en 1947 à Hoffnungsthal vit et travaille à Cologne
		Einzelausstellungen Expositions personelles
1968-73 Studium an den Kölner Werkschulen 1975-78 Studium an der Philosophischen Fakultät Köln 1979 Stipendium des Deutsch-Französichen Jugendwerks 1981 Preisträger aus dem Forum Junger Kunst Werkstipendium des Kunstfond e.V. Bonn, Auslandsstipendium des Kultusministeriums des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Cité des Arts, Paris 1982 Friedrich-Vordemberge-Stipendium der Stadt Köln 1988 Stipendium der Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung für zeitgenössische deutsche Fotografie 1993-94 Lehrauftrag an der Universität GH Essen 1997 Arbeitsstipendium des Kunstfond e.V., Bonn 1998-99 Vertretungsprofessur an der Hochschule für Gestaltung,Offenbach am Main		1973  Aquarelle, Lithographien, Fotografien           Galerie Hinrichs, Lohmar 1976  Fotografien 1973 - 1976           Galerie Haus 11, Karlsruhe 1979  vorher - nachher           Kunstverein Gelsenkirchen (Kat.) 1981  Installation zu dem Tonbandstück:           Ich denk nur allein an mich           Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst, Trier 1982  La chasse photographique est ouverte...           Galerie Magers, Bonn           Produzentengalerie, Hamburg 1985  Fotoarbeiten 1974-1984           Kunsthalle Bielefeld (Kat., mit A.Klein)           Fotoarbeiten, Skulpturen, Zeichnungen           Galerie Schneider, Konstanz 1986  Zeichnungen 1981 -1985           Arthotek, Köln           Neue Fotoarbeiten           Museum am Ostwall Dortmund (Kat., mit A.Klein)           Fotoarbeiten, Skulpturen, Zeichnungen           Galerie Schneider, Konstanz 1987  Rhapsodie nucléaire I           Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf, Hamburg (Kat.) 1988  Rhapsodie nucléaire II           Museum Folkwang, Essen (Kat.)           Rhapsodie nucléaire           Galerie Klaus Werth, Frankfurt 1989  Portrait I           Galerie Kicken - Pauseback, Köln           Forum Stadtpark, Graz 1990  Fotoarbeiten 1978/79, Portrait I - III           Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (Kat.)           Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken 1991  Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, München (Kat.)           Galerie Rudolf Kicken, Köln 1993  Vorstellungsbilder, Galerie Rudolf Kicken, Köln           Années 70 - 80           Marie de Mazaugues, Théatre de Verdure 1994  Vorstellungsbilder und Seestücke           Espace des Arts, Colomiers (Kat.)           Fotohof, Salzburg 1995  Städtische Galerie Villa Zanders,           Bergisch Gladbach (Kat.)           Sander & Ebert, Darmstadt 1996  Panstwowa Galeria Sztuki, Sopot (Kat.)           Galerie Françoise Paviot, Paris           Galerie Vorsetzen, Hamburg 1997  photographie /contre, Triangle, Rennes           Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon (Kat.,mit A. Klein)           Galerie Brigitte Trotha, Frankfurt am Main 1998  Malerei, Kunstraum Hinrichs, Trier           Galerie Municipale des Arts, Sfax ( Kat.)           Galerie de l´Institut Supérieur des Beaux-Arts, Sfax           Maison des Arts, Tunis           Goethe-Institut Tunis    1999  Tunisreisen, Galerie Brigitte Trotha, Frankfurt           Maximilian Krips Galerie, Köln           La Sainte Victoire, Galerie Françoise Paviot, Paris           Les voyages à Tunis, Galerie Barnoud, Dijon 2000  peinture numérisée, Goethe-Loft, Lyon 2001  Börsenarbeiten, Kunstraum Hinrichs, Trier 2003  Smart Money,Maximilian Krips Galerie, Köln           Galerie Justine Lacroix, Marseille 2004  Capture           Galerie Priska Pasquer, Köln 2005  Galerie Barnoud, Dijon 2006  La Sainte Victoire 1997-2003           Galerie J.Lacroix, Marseille 2008  La Chasse photographique 1980           Youtubearbeiten 2007           Galerie Priska Pasquer, Köln 2013  Börsenarbeiten 2001 - 2011           Kunstverein Lippstadt, Lippstadt           Dialog           Galerie Priska Pasquer, Köln 2015  #bonvie 70s/80s           Galerie Priska Pasquer, Köln Gruppenausstellungen (Auswahl) Expositions collectives sélectionnées 1986  Reste des Authentischen           Museum Folkwang, Essen 1987  Blow up           Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart 1989  Das Foto als autonomes Bild           Kunsthalle Bielefeld 1993  Fotografie in der deutschen Gegenwartskunst           Museum Ludwig Köln 1994  Another Continent           Museum of Photographie, Tokio 1997  Deutschlandbilder           Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin 2000  Das Gedächtnis der Kunst           Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt 2003  Zeitgenössische, deutsche Fotografie           Museum Folkwang Essen 2005  Sich selbst bei Laune halten           Kunst der 70er aus der Schenkung Ingrid Oppenheim            Kunst Museum Bonn 2011  Neuerwerbungen für die Sammlung           Museum Folkwang, Essen
		Gruppenausstellungen

Galerie Priska Pasquer, Exhibition, May 1 - June 27, 2015

Tumblrwork 10 (lemons after Chernobyl)
Photowork, 2015
226 x 120 cm, Edition of 3

The exhibition will feature Rudolf Bonvie’s photographic works, polaroids, drawings and ceramics from the 1970s and 1980s. Even at that early stage, the artist was exploring themes that define our everyday lives more and more today, such as a growing narcissism and fears of nuclear disaster.
RUDOLF BONVIE (born 1947) is regarded as one of Germany’s first media artists, one whose work explores the function and impact of communication with images. In his multifarious body of work, he combines social questions with aspects of photographic theory. The artist’s critical observations revolve mainly around three thematic issues: the growing narcissism in our society, the exuberant flood of images and the looming threat of nuclear disaster. Having presented BONVIE’s latest series of works – digital collages generated via Tumblr – last year, | PRISKA PASQUER is now shifting its focus to his works from the 1970s and 1980s. The selected photographs, montages, drawings and photographic works shed light on the artist’s undeniably media-critical outlook and on the analytical rigour that has always characterised his work. And: they are alarmingly relevant to the times we live in.
NARCISSIM
One of the central themes in RUDOLF BONVIE’s work is the impact that the reproductive media have on society and how they determine how we see people. In 1977, he published the photo series “14 Personen – 25 Narzissen” (14 People – 25 Narcissists), half-length portraits of naked young men holding bunches of flowers. Conceived as counterparts to the bodybuilder series “Kraft” (Power), the unusual shots call into question common stereotypes. Both series of pictures can also be seen as early critiques of the growing egocentricity in our society. In this connection, BONVIE also drew on the famous words of Madame de Pompadours “Après nous le déluge” (After us, the deluge). Today, almost 40 years after these works were created, the self-centred mania for self-optimisation has reached a level that would have been unimaginable back then. And the contemptuous, self-obsessed utterance by the famous mistress – a master of self-staging, incidentally – seems to sum up the attitude of much of our society.
FlOOD OF IMAGES
Over 30 years ago, RUDOLF BONVIE was already denouncing a society that was obsessed with taking photographs. In his 1980 series “La chasse photographique est ouverte” (Hunting season for photographs is open), he criticises the kind of sensationalist photojournalism that wields cameras like weapons. In the following years, BONVIE continued to develop the theme centring on how the human image is typecast and reduced, alienated and deindividualised. Faceless figures feature not only in his drawings but also in his photographic works – stereotyped shapes that call to mind the figurines of Oskar Schlemmer. A prime example of this is the expansive photographic work “Piktogramm”, developed by the artist in 1984 based on a video recording. The pictogram projected through a screen is a symbol of the radical reduction of the human image through the reproductive media of photography and video.
NUCLEAR DISASTER
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 was a historic event to which RUDOLF BONVIE devoted one of his most important works. He immediately understood that the magnitude and significance of this event could not be conveyed by means of conventional (image) reporting. The “Rhapsodie nucléaire” is based on starkly alienated photographs of nuclear power plants. The buildings appear detached, abstracted and flattened, almost unreal – yet at the same time with an objective, rational identifiability in their symbolic character. “The power of these pictures lies in their inadequacy when compared with the unimaginable, incomprehensible reality.” (Erich Franz).While his photographic works attempted to capture the permanent threat posed by nuclear energy, BONVIE also explored the response to the disaster in the print media. Between 30 April and 1 June 1986, he collected all reports about the nuclear accident published in Cologne daily newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger and assembled them chronologically and column by column into a three-part picture diagram. This visual interpretation alienates the verbal news material while at the same time exposing the speechlessness masked by the supposed readability: the remembrance work is a monument to our ability to be horrified by something directly and then to forget about it quickly. BONVIE has now compiled the texts together again in a small book.The work cycle “Rhapsodie nucléaire” met with an enthusiastic response ten years later in an exceptional project. To coincide with the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl reactor disaster, RUDOLF BONVIE designed a dinner service called “Über die Schönheit des Atomkraftwerks” (On the beauty of the nuclear power plant). The ceramic service consists of an underplate, a large plate, a plate and a coffee cup. All pieces feature hand-painted decorations from stylised nuclear power plants. The service is an angry, ironic comment on the human tendency to suppress and forget: how are we supposed to eat from plates decorated with reactor images without the food sticking in our throats?All the series of works that RUDOLF BONVIE has created on the subject of nuclear power plants are still very relevant to the present day – 29 years after Chernobyl and five after Fukushima.

Lemons after Chernobyl (26.04.1986)
photowork, 1993, 31 x 40 cm, edition of 100
Tumblrwork 10 (lemons after Chernobyl)
photowork, 2015
226 x 120 cm, edition of 3

Rhapsodie nucléaire 2212, 1988, 197 x 127 cm