Dresden, Frauenkirche

Date2007-2014

Artist Markus Brunetti (born 1965)

CultureGerman

MediumArchival pigment print, printed 2016

EditionEdition 11 of 12, plus 2 artist's proofs

DimensionsImage: 42 1/2 x 34 7/8 in. (107.9 x 88.6 cm)
Sheet: 47 3/16 x 39 9/16 in. (119.9 x 100.5 cm)
Framed: 48 x 40 1/2 in. (121.9 x 102.9 cm)

Credit LinePurchase, gift of James Kloppenburg, class of 1977

Period21st c

Classification(s)

Photograph

SignedOn verso, signed lower right corner in pencil: Markus Brunetti

InscribedOn verso, lower right printed in ink and handwritten in pencil [within stamped box]: Series [ink] Markus Brunetti – FACADES [pencil] / Title [ink] Dresden Frauenkirche [pencil] / Archival Pigment Print on Epson Cold Press Natural Cotton Paper [ink] / Image size [ink] 108 x 88.6cm [pencil] / Sheet size [ink] 120 x 100.6cm [pencil] / Edition [ink] 11/12 [pencil] / Print made [ink] 2016 [indecipherable text] [pencil] / [signature] On verso, lower right printed in ink [beneath stamped box]: In addition to the 12 numbered and / signed prints (plus 2 a.p.) / of this image in this size / there exists a larger print size / of the same image / in an edition of 9 (plus 2 a.p.) / work © Markus Brunetti / Not to be reproduced without written permission Similar information on a printed label from Yossi Milo Gallery, Inc. on verso, lower left corner

ProvenanceYossi Milo Gallery;
Purchased by James Kloppenburg, 2025.

Vassar Exhibitions

Chronostasia: Select Acquisitions 2020–2025

Label TextMarkus Brunetti’s architectural portraits emerge from exhaustive devotion. Across seven years, he assembled hundreds of high-resolution frames into a single frontal plane that achieves impossible clarity. Dresden’s Frauenkirche appears stripped of tourists, scaffolding, weather—an edifice distilled to its essential form. Built between 1726 and 1743 by master architect George Bähr, the Baroque church stood at the heart of Dresden for over two centuries. Destroyed during the Allied firebombing of February 1945, the ruins were designated a memorial for nearly half a century. The digital composite mirrors the church’s resurrection, completed in 2005. Brunetti’s technique collapses temporal intervals, cloudy days, shifting light, and seasonal changes, into unified illumination. What appears as documentary precision reveals itself as careful artifice. The photograph erases the marks of time even as it documents a building rebuilt from catalogued fragments, creating what Brunetti calls “an idealised picture” through digital assembly.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu