“Flowers 10” | Fine Art Print Premium Plus on Hahnemühle Photo Rag | limited edition
This photograph by Thomas Ruff was created as a limited edition for the Thomas Ruff exhibition at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen.Ruff is one of the world’s best-known representatives of contemporary photography, from the legendary Düsseldorf academy class of Hilla and Bernd Becher. In conceptually designed series, he devotes himself to very different themes such as portraits, buildings, plants, landscapes – right up to his most recent virtually abstract photograms.
His own photographs have taken a back seat. Ruff is increasingly using existing image material. He uses a wide variety of sources, from scientific records, media images from the Internet, publications and archive material. With this method, he questions the reality myth of photography.
In his “flowers” series, Ruff refers to Lou Landauer’s flower photograms and works with the Sabattier effect, a technique in which a second exposure is made during development in the darkroom.
Eva Mueller | Art Consultant
Curator of the Koenigshof Collection
VITA THOMAS RUFF (short form)
1958 born in Zell am Harmersbach | 1977-85 studied fine art, photography with Hilla and Bernd Becher, Düsseldorf Art Academy | 2000-06 professor of fine art, photography, Düsseldorf Art Academy
AWARDS AND EXHIBITIONS (selection)
1985 Prize of the Jürgen Ponto Foundation | 1987 ars viva Prize of the Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft im BDI e.V. | 1987 Promotion Prize for Fine Arts of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia | 1990 Dorothea-von-Stetten Art Prize, Kunstmuseum Bonn | 1993 Scholarship of the German Academy Villa Massimo | 2003 Hans-Thoma-Prize, Hans Thoma Art Museum, Bernau | 2021 Appointment to the Class of the Arts of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts
1988 Schloss Hardenberg | 1988 Portikus, Frankfurt | 1992 documenta IX | 1995 Venice Biennale, Italy | 1999 Mai 36 Galerie Zürich | 2000 Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld | 2001 Chabot Museum, Rotterdam, Netherlands | 2001 Kunsthalle Baden-Baden | 2002 Museum Folkwang, Essen | 2002 Städt. Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich | 2002 Artium Centro Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporaneo, Vitoria, Spain | 2003 Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal | 2003 Tate Liverpool, Great Britain | 2003 Kestnergesellschaft Hannover | 2003 Busan Metropolitan Art Museum, Busan, South Korea | 2005 Kunstverein Region Heinsberg | 2005 Kunstverein Region Heinsberg | 2007 Sprengel Museum, Hannover | 2007 Moderna Museet, Stockholm | 2009 Museum für Neue Kunst Freiburg | 2011 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago | 2011 Museum Villa Haiss, Zell am Harmersbach | 2011 Stellar Landscapes, LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Münster | 2012 Haus der Kunst, Munich | 2013 Galerie für Fotografie, Vienna, Austria | 2013 David Zwirner Gallery, New York, USA | 2014 Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst Gent and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf | 2017 Museum Folkwang, Essen | 2019 Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich | 2020/21 K20 and K21, Düsseldorf | 2022-23 Kunsthalle Bielefeld