Los 4289

Siao, Eva
(1911-2001)Images of Lhasa and the Potala Palace

Aus dem Katalog
Fotografie des 19. – 21. Jahrhunderts
Auktionsdatum 5.6.2024

Images of Lhasa and Potala Palace. 1956/printed 1995. 9 ferrotyped gelatin silver prints on RC paper. Each between 20 x 30 cm and reverse. Each signed by the photographer in black felt-tip pen in lower left/right corner; each annotated in ballpoint pen on the verso.

The photographs offered in this and the following six lots are all taken by Eva Siao. Born Eva Sandberg into a Jewish family of doctors, the photographer was forced to flee Germany in the 1930s, and she eventually made her way to China via Sweden and the Soviet Union, where she met her second husband Emi Siao. During the Cultural Revolution, she and her husband were attacked and imprisoned by the Red Guards. Despite this, she remained committed to communist ideology until her death and supplied the agencies in Beijing, Moscow and the GDR with the photographic material they required. She was, however, also a sensitive artist who left behind a large oeuvre of impressive portraits and landscapes, far removed from any official propaganda.
In 1956, Eva Siao traveled to Tibet for the first time to photograph the country and its people, just four years after the "liberation" of Tibet from the "imperialist forces" by the Chinese People's Liberation Army. A second trip, this time on an official commission, took place in 1959.
The photographs taken on these trips are being offered here for the first time on the art market and are extremely rare. Fortunate circumstances enabled her photos to be exhibited in Berlin in 1995, with Eva Siao present. She herself was involved in this project and signed each of the exhibited photographs. Her entire photographic oeuvre is now in the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation in Cologne.
In addition to the famous views of the Potala Palace, this lot also includes a view of the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery from 1956, before its partial destruction by the Red Guards. It was restored in the 1980s with donations from religious Tibetans and the Chinese government. It is the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama. – In very good condition.