Liaisons

About this Event

In 1947, the photographer Herbert List (1903–1975) visited the gravely ill Georg Kolbe (1877–1947) in his studio on Sensburger Allee, today the Georg Kolbe Museum, and took a series of portrait photographs that were to remain the last images of the sculptor. List, who was relatively unknown at the time, would later become an icon of photography. He worked for international magazines like Harper’s Bazaar and Life, and was, at the time, associated with the renowned photo agency Magnum. As a homosexual man, he felt compelled leave Germany in 1936 and accepted his first commissions in Paris and London as a photographer. His travels brought him to Italy and Greece, where he captured the carefree attitude his circle of friends had towards life. The photographs communicate intimate friendships and a sensual, tender perception of the male body.