Gallery Talk: Candida Höfer: Turks in Germany 1979 at Harvard Art Museums

Curator Lynette Roth will discuss Candida Höfer’s photographic series Turks in Germany 1979. Renowned artist Candida Höfer (b. 1944) is best known for her large-format photographs of vacant, sober, and highly detailed interiors. One of her earliest series, however, focused on “guest workers” who joined West Germany’s labor force after World War II. This photographic series, titled Turks in Germany 1979, is featured in our current special exhibition Crossing Lines, Constructing Home: Displacement and Belonging in Contemporary Art.

Turks in Germany 1979 is a rare artistic reflection on the changing social and cultural landscape at the time of its making; it continues to resonate today in the face of the largest refugee crisis since World War II and ongoing debates—often centered on Germany—about migration, racism, and national identity.

Offered by:
Lynette Roth, Daimler Curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum and Head of the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art