The Moment is Eternity

Works from the Olbricht Collection

Diane Arbus, Tina Barney, Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Larry Clark, Francisco de Goya, Philip-Lorca di Corcia, Rineke Dijkstra, Robert Doisneau, Albrecht Dürer, William Eggleston, Elger Esser, Louis Faurer, Lee Friedlander, André Gelpke, Franz Gertsch, Paul Graham, Jitka Hanzlová, Herbert Hoffmann, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Carl Robert Kummer, Zoe Leonard, Robert Mapplethorpe, Lisette Model, Eadweard Muybridge, Helmut Newton, Nicholas Nixon, Elizabeth Peyton, Gerhard Richter, August Sander, Cindy Sherman, Giorgio Sommer, Otto Steinert, Bert Stern, Juergen Teller, Wolfgang Tillmans, Ed van der Elsken

“The Moment is Eternity” shines the spotlight on the photographic works in the Olbricht Collection and shows them in dialogue with other artworks from the collection as well as artifacts in the Wunderkammer. The artist Henri Cartier-Bresson coined the term “the decisive moment” to denote the fleeting moment to which the camera lends permanence and registers the essence of things. This captured moment in the flow of time is marked simultaneously by a sense of transience and timelessness. For us, the moment is the only perceptible slice of eternity—for, as Goethe wrote: “the moment is eternity.” Against this backdrop, the exhibition explores such themes as beauty and sensuality, growth and decay, the body and society. These transcend all epochs and media and reveal the essence of the human condition over centuries. The sheer breadth of the Olbricht Collection offers an array of perspectives on these themes, ranging from Albrecht Dürer to historical X-ray photographs, from August Sander’s typologies to Cindy Sherman’s fictional self-portraits.