The first comprehensive exhibition in more than a decade depicts Ruff's artistic development in chronological order: starting with his first series begun in 1979 of German 'Interieurs', via 'Portraets', 'Haeuser' and 'Sterne', to the series of the 1990's including 'Zeitungsfotos', 'Naechte', 'Plakate' and 'andere Portraets'. The arch spans from 'l.m.v.d.r.' and 'nudes' via 'Maschinen', 'Substrat', 'Zycles', 'jpeg' and 'cassini' to the present with the topographical images of Mars ('ma.r.s.'), begun in 2011.
curated by Thomas Weski
In the first comprehensive exhibition in more than a decade, Thomas
Ruff presents the work series that made him internationally renowned.
The show depicts Ruff’s artistic development in chronological order:
starting with his first series begun in 1979 of German ‘Interieurs’,
via ‘Porträts’, ‘Häuser’ and ‘Sterne’, to the series of the 1990’s
including ‘Zeitungsfotos’, ‘Nächte’, ‘Plakate’ and ‘andere Porträts’.
The arch spans from ‘l.m.v.d.r.’ and ‘nudes’ via ‘Maschinen’,
‘Substrat’, ‘Zycles’, ‘jpeg’ and ‘cassini’ to the present with the
topographical images of Mars (‘ma.r.s.’), begun in 2011. Included for
the first time in a presentation and its mediation is material relating
to the reception of the work and the sources that inspired Thomas
Ruff. This material provides access to Ruff’s conceptual survey of the
various uses and forms of photography.
Thomas Ruff, born in 1958 in Zell amHarmersbach (Black Forest),
studied with Bernd Becher at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf, during
which time he created the ‘Interieurs’ series. The majority of the
series‘ works were photographed in the Black Forest in the apartments
of relatives or those of former class mates‘ parents. Thomas Ruff’s
attitude towards these spaces is ambivalent: For him they represent
“the epitome of the petite bourgeoisie” from which he had escaped but
which also gave him a sense of belonging and represented a sentimental
view of his childhood surroundings. In the ‘Interieurs’ series details
are presented objectively and with reserve, whereby the choice of
framing intensifies the character and mood of each room. Renovations of
these spaces in the early 1980s ended the series.
The period in which Thomas Ruff studied was dominated by Minimal
and Conceptual Art and by ‘Wild Painting’. The portrait as a genre
was virtually non-existent, and it was precisely this that led Ruff
to ask how a contemporary formal solution of this might look like.
In his studio between 1981 and 1985 he photographed 60 half-length
portraits in the same manner: Passport images, with the upper edge
of the photographs situated just above the hair, even lighting, the
subject between 25 and 35 years old, taken with a 9 × 12 cm negative,
and because of the use of a flash without any motion blur. From a stack
of colored card stock the sitter could choose one color, which then
served as the background. The somber presence of the faces and the
pictorial conception of the entire series contradicted the conventional
presumption that a successful portrait provides a psychological
interpretation. Yet the objective and meticulous representation of a
face’s surface is also an indication that behind this begins a foreign,
inaccessible world that Thomas Ruff believes is impossible to capture
in a portrait: “A portrait does not go one millimeter under the skin,
and a single photograph says nothing about the sitter’s personality.”
This is the reason why he does not include the sitter’s name, age or
occupation in the titles.
In 1986 Thomas Ruff decided to execute some of the portraits in a 210 ×
165 cm format. Because he found the effect of the colors too dominate
in these, he chose a light and neutral background for the portraits
he made between 1986 and 1991. With the exhibition of these works
in various galleries between 1986 and 1989 he gained much attention.
His international reputation was solidified with his participation in
documenta IX in 1992 and the presentation of his work in the German
pavilion at the 46th Venice Biennale in 1995.
Like his teacher Bernd Becher, Thomas Ruff is convinced that one should
also reflect the medium used in the images. Thus, the portraits provide
information on how they are created: The lights used for illumination
are reflected in the pupils of the subjects.
The series ‘Häuser’ was created between 1987 and 1991; like ‘Porträts’,
these images had a consistent composition: frontal views with only a
minimal foreground, such as a narrow strip of street or lawn, an almost
completely absent middle ground and, overhead, a gray, neutral sky.
The project is meant as a lapidary view of the surroundings; nothing
elevated, only depiction.
Without passing judgement, Thomas Ruff’s view of these facades
articulates the failure of the architectural utopia of the 1960s.
Herzog & de Meuron soon became aware of this form of architecture
photography and invited Ruff to participate in their entry for the
Architecture Biennale in Venice in 1991 with a photograph of their
building for Ricola. Thomas Ruff was encouraged subsequently by
exhibition makers to photograph the houses of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
(l.m.v.d.r, 1999 - 2001).
For the series ‘Sterne’ (1989 92) Thomas Ruff appropriated external
material. From the European Southern Observatory in the Andes he
purchased negatives of telescope images of the southern starlit sky,
created detail images of these and enlarged them to 260 × 188 cm. He
was fascinated by the idea that the light of a certain star may first
reach earth after it has died and that astrophotography captures many
levels of the past in a single image.
Submerged in greenish light, the images of ‘Nächte’ (1992 96) depict
-
courtyards and streets in and around Düsseldorf, places that seem like
potential crime scenes. They were taken with a camera equipped with an
image intensifier, much like the night vision device that was invented
for military purposes. The aesthetics of the series quotes images of
the Second Gulf War of 1990 91 taken by the media. Back then, these
images transformed the western TV viewer into a kind of voyeur and
accomplice, who could watch the events without being seen.
Thomas Ruff works with found materials, such as newspaper images or
cartoons (for ‘Substrat’, since 2001), used a device similar to the
Minolta Mount Unit employed in the 1970s by state criminal offices for
the production of phantom images (for ‘andere Porträts’, 1994 95),
experiments with pixels reductions and enlargements (for ‘nudes’ and
‘jpeg’) and quotes an anachronistic-like aesthetics like the collage
technique (for ‘Plakate’). All this attests to how intensely Thomas
Ruff works on possible ways out of the conceptions of traditional
camera photography. Against this background, it is only logical that,
for some time now, he has been working with images that were taken
by probes, telescopes and robots. With ‘cassini’ – images of Saturn
and its rings – he poses the question of whether machines can take
beautiful images and admits: “I have to confess that I would like to
have made these images myself, but that would have been a very long
trip and one with no return.” (Thomas Ruff in a film by Ralph Goertz,
IKS 2011)
In his most recent series, Thomas Ruff transforms topographical images
of Mars into pictures of fragile beauty. The photos were taken from
the NASA website and were made by a camera in a satellite from an
angle perpendicular to the planet’s surface. Through their subsequent
coloring and the adjustment of the angle into a human “pseudo-oblique
view”, they became a virtual preemption of a visit to Mars.
Thomas Ruff recently described photography as “the biggest conscious-
ness-changing machine that affects people”; the presence and quality of
photographs in newspapers, magazines, film and television have changed
dramatically due to the technological strides of the last decades, and
the ability to manipulate them has risen steadily. For three decades
Thomas Ruff has explored this development and constantly varied his
own working methods. He made the step from analog to digital image
production and, above all, he has explored the mixing of both with all
its different possibilities. From the beginning, his approach has been
conceptual: He studied genres, motifs and techniques with exemplary
character, and, along with its subject, each series brings forth its
own technique. As a whole Thomas Ruff’s works – spanning more than
three decades – are united by analysis and a passion for seeing in a
unique way.
The exhibition is guest-curated by Thomas Weski, Berlin. The catalogue
includes texts by Okwui Enwezor and Thomas Weski and will be published
by Schirmer/Mosel Verlag, ISBN 978-3-82960585-4, English/German,
28.5 × 30 cm, ca. 180 pages, ca. 148 plates, Hardcover 58 € Brochure
39 €
Image: andere Porträts Nr. 56/4, 1994 / 1995. Ffrom the series: andere Porträts. Silkscreen on paper, 200 × 150 cm © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2011
Press
Dr Elena Heitsch and Jacqueline Falk
+49 89 21127 115
+49 89 21127 157 Fax
presse@hausderkunst.de
Press Viewing Hour: Thursday, 16.02.12, 11 am
Opening: Thursday, 16.02.12, 7 pm
Program plus:
Tuesday, March 13, 2012, 7 pm. Artist‘s talk with Thomas Ruff and Okwui Enwezor
Thursday, April 26, 2012, 7 pm. The scientific artist - Lecture by Thomas Weski
Haus der Kunst
Prinzregentenstrasse 1 - Munich
Opening Hours: Mon Sun 10 am 8 pm, Thu 10 am 10 pm
Admission: 10 € / reduced rate 7 €
under 18 2 € / children under 12 free
Combined ticket: 2 exhibitions 12 € / reduced rate 10 €
3 exhibitions 15 € / reduced rate 12 €