Tata Ronkholz

Biography

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– 1997) shows elements of urban architecture, which due to their transient nature turn the photographs into valuable historical documents.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 Struth and Ronkholz created a unique historical document, which also received great recognition from the city of Düsseldorf.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.

Biography

Born 1940 in Krefeld, Germany.

Died 1997 in Cologne, Germany.

Education

1961 – 1965

Studies Architecture and Interior Architecture, Werkkunstschule Krefeld, Germany

1966 – 1977

Works as freelance product designer

1977 – 1978

Studies at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany (first photographs of industrial sites)

1978

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)

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2021

Sheroes of Photography Part II: Tata Ronkholz, Kicken Berlin Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany

2017

Rheinhafen Düsseldorf – Photographien von Tata Ronkholz, Grisebach, Düsseldorf

Eine Auswahl, Museum Kunstarchiv Kaiserswerth, Düsseldorf

2016

Tata Ronkholz: Trinkhallen und mehr, Museum DKM / Stiftung DKM, Duisburg, Germany

Tata Ronkholz. Trinkhallen, Coffee Lounge, Cologne, Germany

2014

Tata Ronkholz, Conzen am Carlsplatz, Düsseldorf, Germany

2012 – 2013

Tata Ronkholz Trinkhallen, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany

2006

Tata Ronkholz. Photographien 1978 – 1985, Galerie Michael Wiesehöfer, Cologne, Germany

1985

Tata Ronkholz. Fotobilder, Galerie Imago, Cologne, Germany

1984

Tata Ronkholz. Fotobilder, Fotodokumentation Rheinhafen Düsseldorf – Innenräume, „Linie“ Galerie, Moers, Germany

1982

Tata Ronkholz, Landesmuseum Münster, Münster, Germany

1981

Rheinhafen Düsseldorf. Tata Ronkholz und Thomas Struth, Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

1980

Tata Ronkholz. BeauGrenelle – ein modernes Wohnviertel in Paris, Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich, Germany

1978

Tata Ronkholz. New Yorker Straßen, P.S.1, New York, USA

Selected Group Exhibitions

2024

Blickwechsel, Städtische Galerie, Lüdenscheid, Germany

Soziale Fotografie in Düsseldorf, Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf, Germany

2023

Sheroes of Photography Part V, Kicken Berlin, Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany

2022

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

2018

Bernd, Hilla and the Others / Photography from Düsseldorf, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2017

Photographs Become Pictures. The Becher Class, Staedel Museum, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

2016

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

2014

Quadrinnale Düsseldorf, Athena Foundation, Düsseldorf, Germany

Backdoor Fantasies, KAI 10 – Raum für Kunst, Düsseldorf, Germany

2011

Der rote Bulli, Stephen Shore and the new Düsseldorf Photography, NRW-Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft, Düsseldorf, Germany

2004

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

2003

Lubo Laco, Maria Maier, Harold Chapman und Tata Ronkholz. Fotografie, Kunstmuseum in der Alten Post, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany

2002

Joachim Brohm. Bonus: Tata Ronkholz, Frehrking Wiesehöfer, Cologne, Germany

1988

Düsseldorfer Fotografinnen, Bahnhof Eller, Düsseldorf, Germany

1984

22 Fotografinnen, GEDOK at the Galerie am Schloß Brühl, Brühl, Germany

1983

22 Fotografinnen, Ein Querschnitt zeitgenössischer Fotografie, GEDOK, Cologne, Germany

1982

Work by Young Photographers from Germany, Art Galaxy, New York, USA

1980 – 1981

Traveling exhibition of the AÖFS in Munich, Essen, Cologne, Germany and Zurich, Switzerland

1980

Galerie ERG, Brussels, Belgium (with Thomas Schütte and Achim Tiffert)

1979

In Deutschland. Aspekte gegenwärtiger Dokumentarphotographie in Deutschland, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn, Germany

Schlaglichter. Junge Kunst aus dem Rheinland, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn, Germany

Selected Bibliography

2011

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.

1988

Städtische Häfen (Ed.): Düsseldorf. Stadt und Hafen, Düsseldorf, Germany

Düsseldorfer Fotografinnen, exh. cat., Bahnhof Eller, Düsseldorf, Germany

1980

Camera Fotomagazin, 59.n. 5, May1980.

Kunstforum International, n. 40/1980.

Kunstforum International, n. 41/1980.

1979

Kunstforum international, n. 32/1979, In: Deutschland. Aspekte gegenwärtiger Dokumentarfotografie, exh. cat., Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn, Germany

Public Collections

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

Exhibitions

Documents

News

Publications

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