Monika Baumgartl

Monika Baumgartl (born 1942) is a German photographer, performance artist and representative of concrete photography [de].

Life and work

Born in Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia) Baumgartl trained as a photographer in Hofheim am Taunus from 1966 to 1968.^[1] She then moved to Düsseldorf, worked as an actress (among others a member of Die Bühne [de]) and was assistant to the German filmmaker and video galerist Gerry Schum. Since 1970, she has been active as a photographic artist. From 1970 to 1976, she organised performances and joint exhibitions together with Klaus Rinke.^[2][3]

Baumgartl had her first solo exhibition in 1974. Her photographs are almost exclusively night shots.^[4] She participated in Documenta 5 in Kassel in 1972 in the section Individuelle Mythologie [de]n: Self-Representation - Performances - Activities - Changes and was also represented as an artist at Documenta 6 in 1977. Since the 1980s, she has worked as a trainer for tapdance and taiko.