THOMAS RUFF

Literature: Gaensheimer, Susanne/Wolf, Falk (eds.): Thomas Ruff. Ausstellungskatalog Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf 12.9.2020-7.2. 2021, Munich, et al. 2020, p. 141 (with ill.).

Provenance:
- Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf.
- Purchased from the above by the present owner in 2014, since then private collection Switzerland.

"If you ask me: 'Mr Ruff, are you a photographer?' Then I would say: no, I am an artist." Thomas Ruff

Thomas Ruff is one of the best-known contemporary photographers. From 1977 to 1985, he studied with Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, where he later also taught. Ruff belongs to the so-called "Düsseldorf School of Photography", which is one of the most influential groups in photographic art.

The present large-format work "Phg.01 I" from 2013 was inspired by the early Surrealist photograms of László Moholy-Nagy and Man Ray as well as by the later works of Christian Schad. Schad produced black-and-white photographs in an experimental manner without the use of a camera. As is so often the case, Ruff takes up an old "idea", the direct light imprint of objects on photographic paper, and transfers it to the digital world. The objects are no longer projected in the darkroom, but directly in the computer with the help of software developed especially for the artist, moved virtually and exposed to the light - in this sense, he creates his own virtual darkroom. The shapes, circles, waves, lines, crystals, spirals, lenses and stencils created here leave traces that are ultimately transferred to paper as C-prints.