Ania Bien - HOTEL POLEN - SF MOMA 1987 - Rare 2024

Published by Ania Bien in Netherlands for a 1987 exhibition at theSan Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which ran subsequently at theAmsterdamHistoricalMuseum in 1988. This is an exceedingly raretitle.

VG+ condition. Some shelfwear as expected for age, otherwisestraight and solid, photo plates bright.

One of Anias early projects,Hotel Polen,referred to theHotel Polen fire(which became"part of Biens wider theme of destruction") inAmsterdam, 1977, and established her reputation in Dutch artcircles. The collection of photographs illustrated a hotel beforeWorldWar II, showcasing the relative luxury ofmiddle-class travel in Europe, but objects in the photographs associated withtheHolocaustindicate thatthis was a "doomed" way of life.She fabricated 18 replicas ofthe hotels menu stands, and used them to display the photographs. DavidLevi-Strauss wrote that Biens art piece is a "polysemous work of absence,in which what happens between images is the most important."The workwas displayed at theSan Francisco Museum of Modern Artin 1987 and at theAmsterdam HistoryMuseumin 1988.

Ania Bien(born 1946) is aJewish-American photographer.Born in Karkow, Poland, to Polish-Jewishparents, she moved to theUnited Statesin 1958, where she studied painting and culturalanthropology.Since 1973 she has lived inAmsterdam.

More pics and info happily sent upon request.

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