25/28
Thomas Struth
Hester Street at Mulberry Street, New York 1978
Silver gelatin print
66 × 84 cm
Edition 6/10
24/28
Thomas Struth
Prince Street at Crosby Street, New York 1978
Silver gelatin print
66 × 84 cm
Edition 4/10
23/28
Thomas Struth
Broadway at Prince Street, New York 1978
Silver gelatin print
66 × 84 cm
Edition 6/10
22/28
Installation view at the gallery
21/28
Thomas Ruff
tableau chinois_04 II, 2021
C-print
240 × 185 cm
Edition 1/4
20/28
Candida Höfer
Palais Garnier Paris XXXII 2005
C-print
180 × 246,9 cm
Edition 5/6
19/28
Candida Höfer
Teatro della Pergola Firenze II, 2008
C-print
180 × 246,9 cm
Edition 5/6
18/28
Elger Esser
Ninfa Orseis, 2013
B/w photography, baryta paper, AluDibond
125 × 163 × 6 cm
Unique work
17/28
Elger Esser
Beauduc IV, Frankreich, 2009
C-Print, auf DiaSec Face
141 × 184 cm
Edition 7/7
16/28
Installation view at the gallery
15/28
Chen Wei
Dance Hall (Blueness), 2013
Archival InkJet print
153 × 190,5 × 4 cm
Edition 3/6
14/28
Chen Wei
In The Waves (Orange), 2013
Archival Inkjet Print
100 × 125 cm
Edition 2/3
13/28
Chen Wei
Today is Unsuitable for Shooting, 2013
Archival InkJet print
102 × 127,5 × 4 cm
Edition 2/5
12/28
Installation view at the gallery
11/28
Installation view at the gallery
10/28
Thomas Struth
Outskirts of Ramallah, Ramallah 2011
InkJet print
134,2 × 167,2 cm
Edition 4/6
9/28
Thomas Struth
Mount Bental, Golan Heights 2011
InkJet print
129,2 × 161,5 cm
Edition 3/6
8/28
Installation view at the gallery
7/28
Thomas Struth
Z-Pinch Plasma Lab, Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, 2011
InkJet Print
131,8 × 158 cm
Edition 2/6
6/28
Thomas Ruff
tableau chinois_09 II, 2021
C-print
240 × 185 cm
Edition 1/4
5/28
Thomas Ruff
tableau chinois_14, 2019
C-print
240 × 185 cm
Edition 1/4
3/28
Thomas Ruff
tableau chinois_06 I, 2021
C-print
185 × 240 cm
Edition 2/4
© VG Bild-Kunst, Köln-Bonn 2021
2/28
Installation view at the gallery
1/28
Installation view at the gallery
Elger Esser, Candida Höfer, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, Chen Wei
Focus on Photography
2 Jul – 4 Sep, 2021
Düsseldorf photographic art has been an essential part of the gallery's program for more than 40 years. This exhibition focuses on different work cycles by Elger Esser, Candida Höfer, Thomas Ruff and Thomas Struth who exhibited at the gallery already shortly upon graduation. They have had a decisive influence on the paradigm shift from photography to photo art and are among the best-known photo artists of the present day. In addition, works by the Chinese photo artist Chen Wei from his well-known nightclub cycle are on display. Interesting political and aesthetic juxtapositions have emerged in works that question nature and the human habitat, both in terms of form and content.
For the first time we show works from the new “tableaux chinois” series by Thomas Ruff. This cycle is about the effects of photography on our consciousness, about “arranged reality”. Chairman Mao and his happy comrades are shown in monumental photographs, based on reproductions of party publications from the time of Mao. The offset grid and the pixel structures become visible; social realism is exposed to the naked eye. Images that lie so overtly are fascinating to Thomas Ruff.
In contrast, Thomas Struth's “Israel/Palestine” series (2009 – 2014) focuses on a never-ending religious conflict and at the same time points out the contrast between the barren desert landscape, religious beliefs, orthodox thinking, and modern technological development in the same place. The seemingly insoluble Israel-Palestine conflict contrasts with man's efforts to make technological progress for the benefit of humanity. The work “Mount Bental, Golan Heights 2011” shows the breathtaking view of the desert landscape from the Golan Heights, but disturbed by the view of the trench – which transforms this vantage point from a feast for the eyes into a religious-political minefield.
Equally polarising are the staged photographs by Chen Wei: his mises-en-scène address human existence with all its yearnings, with all its helplessness. Human bodies, whether present or absent in the picture, are represented in their attempt to escape the conditioning to which they are subjected in society. It is this theme that the artist brings out so well in his Nightclub Series. Some of the individuals thirsting for moments of freedom seem, precisely in these places of hopeless yearning, to be torpid and stupefied.
Candida Höfer is famous for her photographic documentations of places steeped in history. The subjects of her meticulously shot photographs highlight the specific design of places where people gather. Her works stimulate our imagination and at the same time charm us with their sharpness, precision, clarity, neutrality and objectivity. The “grande dame” of photography is represented in the exhibition with two opera houses: the neo-baroque Palais Garnier in Paris and one of the oldest opera houses in Italy, the Teatro della Pergola in Florence.
Elger Esser’s large-format landscape photographs are tranquil moments that seem to belong to bygone eras. Time seems to stand still and the viewer’s gaze dwells in dreamlike, melancholic landscapes. Detached from both time and place, these scenes of bridges, riverside towns and seacoasts awaken vague memories and daydreams. Water, light and architecture merge into one inseparable unity. The lyrical, pictorial language, full of atmosphere and governed by the classical rules of composition, conveys an overall impression of perfect harmony. The pale, delicate colors heighten the impression of being transported into the past.
This exhibition is kindly supported by NEUSTART KULTUR and Stiftung Kunstfonds.
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