OTTO MUELLER. GEGENWELTEN SINTI UND ROMA IN DER HISTORISCHEN FOTOGRAFIE

This book is being published to accompany the exhibition Otto Mueller. Gegenwelten at the Kunstmuseum Ravensburg. The main emphasis here is the comparison of paintings by Otto Mueller with historical photographs of Romani from the Austrian National Library in Vienna.
By the end of the 19th century, a wide spectrum of photographic »gypsy« stereotypes had begun to emerge. These stereotypes were less indicative of the Romani people’s lived realities, but instead offered distorted – sometimes debased, sometimes romanticized– depictions of their way of life.
Uwe Schögl sheds light on photography’s role in the public perception and imagination of Roma and Sinti, placing it within the context of historical visual research. Tanja Pirsig-Marshall examines the myth and reality behind the well-known »gypsy painter« Otto Mueller.