Still.

Struth, Thomas:

ISBN 10: 1580930948 / ISBN 13: 9781580930949

Published by The Monacelli Press, 2001

About this Item

144 Seiten, überw. Abb. Good copy, cover slightly discolored. - Thomas Struth is considered one of the major figures of German photography. He com- bines a rigorous style with a neutral, objective vision of reality and an impressively precise technique. Exploring his themes in successive series, he spent several years focusing on the urban architecture of Europe and the United States. Ironing out the exceptional, his gaze concentrated on rows of banal buildings, on vistas of streets without qualities, on the details of anonymous facades. And yet, behind these seemingly blank descriptions of com- mon cityscapes, there lies a profound and serious meditation on recent Western history, and in particular on the traumas caused by the last world war and the architectural "responses" that these elicited. -- In the mid- -- s, Struth widened his field of investigation, beginning work on several series of portraits of individuals or groups, particularly families. Here, human emotion is distinctly present but never indulged. It emerges in the psychological density of a gaze, in the singularity of a posture, or, even more conspicuously, in the knotty relationships of the family portraits. -- In recent years, Struth has embarked on new themes such as landscape and flowers. These form a gently lyrical counterpoint to the earlier series. He has also developed a fascinating exploration of the places where works of art are shown-both traditional settings such as churches and palaces, and the specialist institutions that are museums as well as into the modern rituals that shape the public's behavior toward these places and the works they con- tain. Alternatively sympathetic and ironic, Struth conducts an extremely subtle analysis of the position of the work of art in our society, of our relation to history and heritage and, lastly, of the mysterious and enduring power of art over human beings (a phenomenon which, paradoxically, photography, of all art forms, seems the best equipped to reveal). -- This book marks the first major European exhibition dedicated to Thomas Struth. We hope that this event will increase familiarity with his body of work and thus help provide a FOREWORD -- C -- X -- Y -- Alt -- clearer definition of what we consider an exemplary artistic enterprise in relation to the field of contemporary photography. It is a pleasure to thank all the lenders for their pre- cious support and, of course, the artist himself, whose unfailing helpfulness and care did so much to ensure the success of this project. -- THOMAS STRUTH Acknowledgments -- GUY TOSATTO The Time of Photography -- HRIPSIMÉ VISSER Cultural Images -- List of Plates -- Plates -- , RÉGIS DURAND A Common Measure -- , JAMES LINGWOOD Composure [or On Being Still] -- Biography -- Exhibitions -- Bibliography -- Lenders. ISBN 9781580930949 Sprache: Englisch Gewicht in Gramm: 1148 Orig.Lw.; Orig.-Schutzumschlag.

Seller Inventory # 1265464

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Still.
• Publisher: The Monacelli Press
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1580930948
• ISBN 13: 9781580930949
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Sehr gut
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Fotografie

About this title

Synopsis

Thomas Struth is considered one of the major figures of German photography. He combines a rigorous style with a neutral, objective vision of reality and an impressively precise technique. The first major monograph on Struth to be published in the United States, Still continues a notable tradition of books by German photographers from August Sander and Albert Renger-Patzsch to Hilla and Bernd Becher, and is a beautiful survey of Struth's body of work, including stunning close-up views of flowers, restrained urban streetscapes, intimate portraits, and frenzied museum interiors. Critic Peter Schjeldahl has written in the Village Voice: "Thomas Struth [is] one of a generation of photographers whose work is the latest strength of a German art culture that seems to have no end of aces up its sleeve . . . His urban shots apply Becheresque formulas of static, unpopulated (surely early-morning), shadowless views with a feel for the ?typical' or ?average' aspect of a subject. As if in compensation, Struth's astonishing family portraits burn with human presence." Struth began in the early 1980s to make steely black-and-white photographs of deserted city streets and decaying buildings. In recent years, his work has diversified in subject, scale, and color to embrace increasingly ambitious subjects and challenging locations. Struth has extended his urban investigation to the inhabitants and spaces of the city, from Milan to Tokyo, while his recent landscapes and portraits complete his unique vision of the alternately public and solitary conditions of being.

About the Author

Thomas Struth is a former student of artist Gerhard Richter and of photographers Hilla and Bernd Becher. He has exhibited his work at museums and galleries in New York, London, Milan, Paris, Berlin, and Tokyo.