Author | Annie Malamet | Visual Arts Editor
Muscled tattooed men decked out in leather populate the Karlheinz Weinberger exhibit currently on view at the Maccarone Gallery in Greenwich Village through March 29. Weinberger spent his life working in the warehouse department of a factory. Any photographs he produced were largely unknown and unpublished; Weinberger did not have artistic aspirations. He began his career taking photographs for a gay underground club and for the rest of his artistic career focused on documenting the lives of the young men and women in a Swiss subculture referred to as the “Halbstrake,” a group that could be likened to the punk scene of the UK and US. This show is the first solo exhibition the late artist has ever enjoyed, and many of the photographs have not been seen publically until now.
The photographs on view at Maccarone feature all male subjects, some Halbstrake members, nudes, and portraits of the Hell’s Angels chapter in Switzerland. Also on view are close ups of patched leather jackets and full back tattoos. Weinberger treats every subject with a respect and sensitivity. They are at once as glamorous as a fashion photograph by Collier Schorr, and as intimate and raw as the work of Nan Goldin. The men posture and pose for the camera, and they appear menacing with their heavily tattooed bodies and ripped up clothes, but it’s the eyes that give away the softness behind the leather gear.
I hesitate to reduce the complexity of Weinberger’s photographs to a simplified reading of their homoeroticism. However, I also feel it would be flawed of me to whitewash over this aspect of them. The first series of photos one encounters on entering the gallery are from the 70s and 80s, so it’s almost as if we view Weingerger’s work in reverse. The subjects are mustachioed men with long hair, topless, covered in tattoos, and frequently staring directly into the camera. I was reminded of post-stonewall images of Bears and Leather Daddies, or even Catherine Opie’s early portraits of men and women in the gay leather scene. Like Opie, Weinberger has a way of capturing the bravado and humanness of his subjects, as well as the underlying sexual tension between photographer, subject, and viewer.
My favorite photographs are a series of small, black and white nudes towards the end of the exhibit. These photos show the same juxtaposition of hardness and vulnerability that populates the exhibit. A Robert Mapplethorpe comparison is obvious here, and that is certainly true, but Weinberger’s photographs have a sensitivity that I’ve felt Mapplethorpe’s often lack. Although the subjects are chiseled male nudes, often with prominent erections, there is something in the treatment that is not as objectifying as Mapplethorpe’s. They are erotic without being dehumanizing; the subject’s stances vary from strong and composed, to hunched and self-conscious.
The Karlheinz Weinberger exhibition began February 15th and runs through March 29th at Maccarone on 98 Morton Street, open Tuesday-Saturday 10am-6pm. All images are courtesy of Maccarone Gallery.
