Wim Wenders is a pioneer of New German Cinema and is considered one of the most prominent figures in contemporary German film. His oeuvre as a scriptwriter, director, producer, photographer and author includes documentaries, photo exhibitions, monographs, films and books. Wenders is the winner of the Golden Palm and the British Film Academy Award for Paris, Texas (1984), the Director’s Prize in Cannes for Wings of Desire (1987), the Golden Lion in Venice for The State of Things (1982) and the Silver Bear for The Million Dollar Hotel (2000) at the Berlin International Film Festival. His documentary films Buena Vista Social Club (1999), Pina (2011), and The Salt of the Earth (2014) have all been nominated for an Oscar. Wenders was presented with the Honorary Golden Bear for his lifetime achievement at Berlin International Film Festival (2015). Wenders’ photographic ouevre has been widely published and exhibited in The Photographers’ Gallery, London (2017); Villa Panza, Varese; Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (2015); the Villa Pignatelli, Naples; GL Strand, Copenhagen (2014); the Fundació Sorigué, Lleida (2013); the Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow (2012); the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (2010); the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome (2006); the Shanghai Museum of Art (2004); the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2003); the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (2002); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2001) and the Centre Pompidou, Paris (1986).
Honorary RA
Born: 1945 in Dusseldorf
Nationality: German
Elected Hon RA: 19 March 2018
Gender: Male
Preferred media: Film making and Photography
2019 (E)motion, Grand Palais, Paris
A Walking Shadow, Blain|Southern, Berlin
Early Photographs 1960s-80s, METRO Kinokulturhaus, Vienna
2018 Wim Wenders. Water Works, Atrium des Medienzentrum, Passau
The Times, They Are-a Changin, Galerie Bastian, Berlin
Leiko Ikemura im Dialog mit Donata und Wim Wenders, Max Libermann Haus, Berlin
Wim Wenders, Early Works: 1964 – 1984, Blain|Southern, London
2017 Instant Stories: Wim Wenders’ Polaroids, The Photographers’ Gallery, London
Land of Plenty, Galerie Bastian, Berlin
Derain, Balthus, Giacometti. An artistic friendship, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris
2015 The space between the characters can carry the load, Collection Ivo Wessel, Museum Weserburg, Bremen
Places of the Mind, Wim & Donata Wenders, Polka Galerie, Paris
In Broad Daylight Even The Sounds Shine, Reservatório da Mae d’Água das Amoreiras, Lisbon
Time Capsules by the Side of the Road, Blain|Southern, Berlin
4Real & True2. Wim Wenders Landscapes. Photographs., Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
Wim Wenders. America, Villa e Collezione Panza, Varese
2014 Wim Wenders: Places Strange and Quiet, GL Strand, Copenhagen
Wim Wenders: Urban Solitude, Palazzo Incontro, Rome
2013 Wim Wenders Photographs, Fundació Sorigué, Lleida
2010-13 Places Strange and Quiet, Villa Pignatelli, Naples; Galerie OstLicht, Vienna; Deichtorhallen Sammlung Falckenberg, Hamburg; Haunch of Venison, London; MASP, São Paulo
2006-09 Journey To Onomichi, Céline and Heiner Bastian, Berlin; Omotesando Hills, Tokyo (with Donata Wenders)
2001-06 Pictures From The Surface Of The Earth, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow; Scuderia del Quirinale, Rome; Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus; James Cohan Gallery, New York; Millennium Art Museum, Peking; Shanghai Museum of Art, Shanghai; Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou; Haunch of Venison, London; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; City Art Gallery, Wellington; Juerg Judin, Zürich; Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
2000 Buena Vista Social Club, Rose Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica (with Donata Wenders)
1996 Wim Wenders: Landscape and Memory, Gallery of Contemporary Photography, Santa Monica
Wim Wenders: Photos, Goethe Institute, worldwide
1994-95 Once – Photographs by Wim Wenders, Villa Rufolo, Ravello; FNAC, Berlin,; Parco, Tokyo; FNAC, Paris; Villa delle Rose, Bologna; Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome
1989-94 Wim Wenders: Photographs, San Telmo Museum, San Sebastian; Sala Parpallo Palau Dels Scala, Valencia; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek; La Biennale die Venezia “Slittamenti”, Venice; “Robert Adams – Wim Wenders”, Amerika Haus, Berlin; Musée de l’Elysee, Lausanne; Kiyomizu Temple, Kyoto; Shibuya Seibu Dept. Store, Tokyo; Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles; Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film, Munich; “Robert Adams – Wim Wenders”, Galerie Marie Louise Wirth, Zürich; PPS. Galerie F.C. Gundlach, Hamburg
1986-92 Written in the West, Städtische Galerie Schwarzes Kloster, Freiburg; Saint-Yrieix-La-Perche, France; Goethe Institute, Copenhagen; Goethe Institute, Stockholm; Film Society of Miami, Miami; Palazzo della Triennale di Milano, Milan; Encontros de Fotografia, Coimbra, Portugal; Centre Pompidou, Paris
2017, Instant Stories, Thames & Hudson, London
2015 Wim Wenders, Una Volta Contrasto srl, Rome
Wim Wenders: Die Pixel des Paul Cézanne, Verlag der Autoren, Frankfurt a. M.
Written in the West – Revisited, Schirmer/Mosel, Munich
4 Real & True 2 Wim Wenders. Photographs. Landscapes, Schirmer/Mosel, Munich
Wim Wenders. America, Silvana Editoriale, Milan
2013 Inventing Peace: A Dialogue on Perception, L.B. Tauris, London
Places, strange and quiet, 2nd edition, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern
2012 Pina. The Film and the Dancers, Schirmer/Mosel, Munich
2011 Places, strange and quiet, Hatje Cantz, Ostfieldern
2009 Journey to Onomichi, Schirmer/Mosel, Munich
2007 Wim Wenders, Editrice Il Castoro srl, Milan
2005 A Sense of Place, Verlag der Autoren, Frankfurt
2001 Pictures from the Surface of the Earth, Schirmer/Mosel, Munich
Imágenes de la Superficie de la Tierra, Schirmer/Mosel, Munich
On Film, A volume that combines Emotion Pictures, The Logic of Images and The Act of Seeing, Faber & Faber, London
2000 The Heart is a Sleeping Beauty - The Million Dollar Hotel, Schirmer/Mosel, Munich
1999 Buena Vista Social Club, Schirmer/Mosel, Munich
1996 Wim Wenders: Photos, Edition Braus, Heidelberg
1995 Die Zeit mit Antonioni, Verlag der Autoren, Frankfurt
1994 Once. Pictures and Stories, Verlag der Autoren, Frankfurt
Une Fois. Images et histoires, G3J editeur, Paris
Wim Wenders. Fotografías. Edicions Alfons El Magnánim, Valencia
1993 Electronic Paintings, Rome: Edizioni Socrates, Rome
Einstellungen, Verlag der Autoren, Frankfurt
Una Volta, Edizioni Socrates, Rome
1992 The Act of Seeing, Verlag der Autoren, Frankfurt
1988 Die Logik der Bilder, Verlag der Autoren, Frankfurt
1987 Written in the West, Schirmer/Mosel, Munich
1986 Emotion Pictures, Verlag der Autoren, Frankfurt
1985 Tokyo-Ga, Verlag der Autoren, Frankfurt
1984 Paris, Texas, Greno Verlag, Nördlingen