In her work, Tata Ronkholz (1940, Krefeld – 1997) shows elements of urban architecture, which due to their transient nature turn the photographs into valuable historical documents. Along with Thomas Ruff, Candida Höfer and Thomas Struth, Ronkholz was among the first students of Bernd Becher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Even before she began to study with Bernd and Hilla Becher in 1978, she made her first black and white photographs of industrial sites, which she took with a view camera only during the winter months, so the vegetation would not cover up the structure of the gates.
Ronkholz’s perhaps best known and most extensive series is Trinkhallen: kiosks and small shops around the corner that are witnesses of social neighbourhoods and vernacular cultures, which mostly do not exist anymore. Ronkholz found her characteristic subjects in Cologne, Düsseldorf, Bochum, and parts of the Rhineland. The artist commented: “I was neither interested in the social aspect nor in the design, but felt drawn to the everyday. I wanted to show the kiosk around the corner in all its amiableness.”
Together with Thomas Struth, Tata Ronkholz documented a part of the port of Düsseldorf between 1978 and 1980, shortly before it was pulled down. Struth and Ronkholz created a unique historical document, which also received great recognition from the city of Düsseldorf. In 1979 the artist took part in the seminal exhibition In Deutschland at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn.
Born 1940 in Krefeld, Germany.
Died 1997 in Cologne, Germany.
Studies Architecture and Interior Architecture, Werkkunstschule Krefeld, Germany
Works as freelance product designer
Studies at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany (first photographs of industrial sites)
Studies Photography at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Class of Prof. Bernd Becher
(first photographs of ‘Trinkhallen’, stores, interior spaces, started documentation
‘Rheinhafen Düsseldorf’ in collaboration with Thomas Struth)
Sheroes of Photography Part II: Tata Ronkholz, Kicken Berlin Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany
Rheinhafen Düsseldorf – Photographien von Tata Ronkholz, Grisebach, Düsseldorf
Eine Auswahl, Museum Kunstarchiv Kaiserswerth, Düsseldorf
Tata Ronkholz: Trinkhallen und mehr, Museum DKM / Stiftung DKM, Duisburg, Germany
Tata Ronkholz. Trinkhallen, Coffee Lounge, Cologne, Germany
Tata Ronkholz, Conzen am Carlsplatz, Düsseldorf, Germany
Tata Ronkholz Trinkhallen, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
Tata Ronkholz. Photographien 1978 – 1985, Galerie Michael Wiesehöfer, Cologne, Germany
Tata Ronkholz. Fotobilder, Galerie Imago, Cologne, Germany
Tata Ronkholz. Fotobilder, Fotodokumentation Rheinhafen Düsseldorf – Innenräume, „Linie“ Galerie, Moers, Germany
Tata Ronkholz, Landesmuseum Münster, Münster, Germany
Rheinhafen Düsseldorf. Tata Ronkholz und Thomas Struth, Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
Tata Ronkholz. BeauGrenelle – ein modernes Wohnviertel in Paris, Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich, Germany
Tata Ronkholz. New Yorker Straßen, P.S.1, New York, USA
Blickwechsel, Städtische Galerie, Lüdenscheid, Germany
Soziale Fotografie in Düsseldorf, Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf, Germany
Sheroes of Photography Part V, Kicken Berlin, Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany
Body|spaces, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
2021
Sheroes of Photography Part I, Kicken Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2020
Subject and Object. Photo Rhine Ruhr, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
2019
The Photography Show, Kunsthandel Jörg Maass, Berlin, Germany
2018 – 2019
Doing the Document. Photographs from Diane Arbus to Piet Zwart, The Bartenbach Donation, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Bernd, Hilla and the Others / Photography from Düsseldorf, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Photographs Become Pictures. The Becher Class, Staedel Museum, Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Everything happens somewhere – Landschaftsstrategien, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
In Deutschland. Reloaded (I): curated by Klaus Honnef, Kicken Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Transiciones, Toluca Fine Art, (PhotoEspaña Festival), Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain
Der typologische Blick – Ausstellung für Hilla Becher, Die Photographische Sammlung/ SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne, Germany
Studenten der Becher Klasse 1974 – 1985, Ex AdA – Außenstelle der Akademie, Düsseldorf, Germany
Quadrinnale Düsseldorf, Athena Foundation, Düsseldorf, Germany
Backdoor Fantasies, KAI 10 – Raum für Kunst, Düsseldorf, Germany
Der rote Bulli, Stephen Shore and the new Düsseldorf Photography, NRW-Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft, Düsseldorf, Germany
best of – Blick in die Sammlung, Die Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne, Germany
Gabriele & Helmut Nothhelfer, Wilhelm Schürmann, Tata Ronkholz, Thomas Struth, Joachim Brohm, Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne, Germany
Lubo Laco, Maria Maier, Harold Chapman und Tata Ronkholz. Fotografie, Kunstmuseum in der Alten Post, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany
Joachim Brohm. Bonus: Tata Ronkholz, Frehrking Wiesehöfer, Cologne, Germany
Düsseldorfer Fotografinnen, Bahnhof Eller, Düsseldorf, Germany
22 Fotografinnen, GEDOK at the Galerie am Schloß Brühl, Brühl, Germany
22 Fotografinnen, Ein Querschnitt zeitgenössischer Fotografie, GEDOK, Cologne, Germany
Work by Young Photographers from Germany, Art Galaxy, New York, USA
Traveling exhibition of the AÖFS in Munich, Essen, Cologne, Germany and Zurich, Switzerland
Galerie ERG, Brussels, Belgium (with Thomas Schütte and Achim Tiffert)
In Deutschland. Aspekte gegenwärtiger Dokumentarphotographie in Deutschland, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn, Germany
Schlaglichter. Junge Kunst aus dem Rheinland, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn, Germany
Lippert, Werner / Schaden, Christoph (Ed.): Der rote Bulli. Stephen Shore und die Neue Düsseldorfer Fotografie. exh. cat., NRW Forum, Düsseldorf, Germany, p. 48, 146-151, 278.
Städtische Häfen (Ed.): Düsseldorf. Stadt und Hafen, Düsseldorf, Germany
Düsseldorfer Fotografinnen, exh. cat., Bahnhof Eller, Düsseldorf, Germany
Camera Fotomagazin, 59.n. 5, May1980.
Kunstforum International, n. 40/1980.
Kunstforum International, n. 41/1980.
Kunstforum international, n. 32/1979, In: Deutschland. Aspekte gegenwärtiger Dokumentarfotografie, exh. cat., Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn, Germany
LVR, Landesmuseum Bonn, Germany
Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne, Germany
Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf, Germany
Kunstmuseum in der Alten Post, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany
Zander Galerie
Schönhauser Straße 8
50968 Cologne
Germany
Zander Galerie
6 Rue Jacob
75006 Paris
France