Opelvillen Museum in Rüsselsheim exhibits Romy Schneider Portraits

Saturday, 13 September 2008 00:43

Russelsheim, Germany - The Opelvillen Museum in Rüsselsheim will open a photographic exhibition on Austrian actress Romy Schneider with a collection of 130 portraits, 40 of which have never been exhibited. The exhibition is titled "Memory is Frequently Prettier - Photographic Portraits of Romy Schneider" and will show daily scenes and professional scenes of the actress that became famous for playing the part of "Sissi", empress Elizabeth of Austria. The exhibition will be on view through December 28, 2008.

Exhibition curator Beate Kemfert said, "Romy Schneider was photographed thousands of times, nevertheless she was always enigmatic.

Among the images is a portrait by Herbert List of the teenage artist, who only photographed her once, as well as a series by Robert Lebeck from the 1950's. Images also taken by photographers such as Werner Bokelberg, Peter Brüchmann and Roger Fritz.

The actress, whose real name was Rosemarie Albach Retty, is shown next to French actor Alain Delon, or with her sons, in different facets: happy, thoughtful, seductive or vulnerable.

According to Kemfert the images in the exhibition "allow the myth of Romy stay alive and at the same time make visible the ephemeras of the existence." The actress would have been 70 years old on September 23. She was found dead in 1982 at her home in Paris at the age of 43.

} The Memory is often the most beautiful thing in the Photographs of Romy Schneider {

The fundamental essence of photography is to create an image in order to be able to permanently attest to what happened in the past. Yet the very moment a picture is taken it can only ever be a sign of its transience. Romy Schneider would have been 70 years old on September 23, 2008. Photographs by nine internationally re-knowned photographers, Werner Bokelberg, Peter Brüchmann, Roger Fritz, F. C. Gundlach, Helga Kneidl, Robert Lebeck, Herbert List, Max Scheler and Will McBride, will remain to remember her.