Gerhard Vormwald Books

Gerhard Vormwald, born in Mannheim in 1948 and deceased in Paris in 2016, gained national and international recognition in the 80s and 90s for his surreal pictorial stagings and montages. Before the advent of Photoshop, he visually defied gravity and imagination, creating scenes where people float, water flows upward, and objects engage in surreal dances. This book provides an overview of his diverse visual worlds, including early documentary images, architectural montages, image pairings, surrealistic works, and alienated still lifes, alongside a few commissioned pieces from advertising. Vormwald's poetic "unrealization" of the world reflects his joyful fascination with the absurd and the mysterious. His relative obscurity in the art world today may stem from the complexity of his work, which resists being distilled into a recognizable trademark. Exploring his extensive archive could yield valuable insights for future publications and exhibitions, highlighting the depth and richness of his artistic contributions.