Helmut Newton - SUMO

Helmut Newton is considered one of the most important photographers of the 20th century. No photographer of his time has created more elaborate and provocative image stagings than Helmut Newton. His nude photography still has such an exciting and excessive effect today because it directly targets the individual boundaries of feeling, taste and morality. The women he shows are strong and self-confident. The models' bodies are not so much wrapped in clothes as in a subtle sexual tension that transcends time and leaves everything fashionable behind.

In April 2000, Newton's so-called SUMO picture book caused a sensation when the number one copy broke the record for the largest, heaviest, and most expensive book of the 20th century.

SUMO is no ordinary book. It is the essence of Newton's life's work. Designed by Benedikt Taschen and his wife June Newton, SUMO is an acknowledgement of Helmut Newton's incomparable photographic greatness, which the book impressively demonstrates in weight and size. SUMO introduces the viewer to hundreds of immaculate, often nude models, their heads proudly raised, woven into the huge plush sofas of swanky mansions, the beds of luxury hotels, or set in surreal landscapes. But Helmut Newton also created iconic masterpieces with his portrait photographs, such as those of Helmut Kohl, David Hockney or the sleeping Andy Warhol.

The exhibition "Helmut Newton - SUMO" shows almost all photo pages of the SUMO book in original size and elaborate framing, from floor to ceiling, room by room, page by page, in clever selection. Helmut Newton's life's work as a museum tour.