Andreas Gursky (born 15 January 1955) is a German artist and a former professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany.
He is known for his large-scale colour photographs of architecture, landscapes and contemporary life—crowds, consumer goods and the infrastructures of global capitalism—combining methodical observation with digital construction to achieve an all-over, hyper-detailed image field.
He was also involved in the establishment of the Deutsches Fotoinstitut (German Institute for Photography) in Düsseldorf, the first national institution for photography in Germany.
Early life and education
Gursky was born in
Leipzig,
East Germany, in 1955.
[ Andreas Gursky profile , Guggenheim.org. Retrieved 15 March 2016.] He was the son of photographer Willy Gursky (1921–2016) and the grandson of photographer Hans Gursky (1890–1969).
His family relocated to
West Germany, moving to
Essen and then Düsseldorf by the end of 1957.
Between 1981 and 1987, he studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he was a student of
Bernd Becher.
[Tomkins, Calvin. The New Yorker. "The Big Picture." 22 January 2001.] Earlier, from 1978 to 1981, he had studied visual communication with a focus on photography at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen (then Folkwangschule/Universität Gesamthochschule Essen) under photographers
Otto Steinert and Michael Schmidt.
Career and style
Before the 1990s, Gursky did not digitally manipulate his images.
[Warren, Lynne. Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography. 2006, page 644] In the years since, Gursky has been frank about his reliance on computers to edit and enhance his pictures, creating an art of spaces larger than the subjects photographed. Writing in
The New Yorker magazine, the critic
Peter Schjeldahl called these pictures "vast," "splashy," "entertaining," and "literally unbelievable."
[Schjeldahl, Peter. The New Yorker. "Reality Clicks." 27 May 2002.] In the same publication, critic Calvin Tomkins described Gursky as one of the "two masters" of the Düsseldorf School of Photography. In 2001, Tomkins described the experience of confronting one of Gursky's large works:
The perspective in many of Gursky's photographs is drawn from an elevated vantage point. This position enables the viewer to encounter scenes, encompassing both centre and periphery, which are ordinarily beyond reach.[ Andreas Gursky: New work, 23 March—5 May 2007 White Cube, London, UK.] This sweeping perspective has been linked to an engagement with globalization.[Museum of Modern Art. "Andreas Gursky." Exhibition Catalog, 2001] Gursky's style is enigmatic and deadpan. There is little to no explanation or manipulation on the works. His photography is straightforward.
The photograph 99 Cent (1999) was taken at a 99 Cents Only store on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, and depicts its interior as a stretched horizontal composition of parallel shelves, intersected by vertical white columns, in which the abundance of "neatly labeled packets are transformed into fields of colour, generated by endless arrays of identical products, reflecting off the shiny ceiling" (Wyatt Mason).[ Andreas Gursky, 99 Cent, 2001 UBS Art Collection, Zürich. Retrieved 15 March 2016.] Rhein II (1999), depicts a stretch of the river Rhine outside Düsseldorf, immediately legible as a view of a straight stretch of water, but also as an abstract configuration of horizontal bands of colour of varying widths.[ The Andreas Gursky: Rhine II (1999) Tate Collection.] In his six-part series Ocean I-VI (2009–2010), Gursky used high-definition satellite photographs which he augmented from various picture sources on the Internet.[Andreas Gursky, 1 May-21 June 2010, Sprüth Magers, Berlin.]
Art market
Most of Gursky's photographs come in editions of six with two artist's proofs.
[Sarah Thornton Bedfellows. Two artists who understand the beauty of business, The Economist; 20 September 2009.]
Since 2010, Gursky has been represented by Gagosian Gallery.[Carol Vogel (4 November 2010), New At The Galleries The New York Times.] He held the record for highest price paid at auction for a single photographic image from 2011 to 2022. His work Rhein II sold for US$4,338,500 at Christie's, New York on 8 November 2011.[ Public Lot Details (November 2011)][ Gursky's Chicago stock exchange photo sells with 169% increase, Paul Fraser Collectibles] A 2024 overview by the photography site Expert Photography lists Rhein II in third place among the most expensive photographs ever sold, behind works by Man Ray and Edward Steichen. It remains the most expensive photograph by a living photographer.
Publications
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Andreas Gursky. Cologne: Galerie Johnen + Schöttle, 1988. Exhibition catalogue.
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Andreas Gursky. Krefeld: Museum Haus Lange, 1989. Exhibition catalogue.
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Siemens Kulturprogramm: Projekte 1992. Munich: Siemens AG, 1992. Exhibition catalogue.
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Andreas Gursky.Cologne: Buchhandlung Walther König; Zurich: Kunsthalle, 1992. Exhibition catalogue.
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Fotografien 1984–1993. Hamburg: Deichtorhallen; Munich: Schirmer/ Mosel, 1994. Exhibition catalogue.
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Montparnasse. Cologne: Portikus & Oktagon, 1995. Exhibition catalogue.
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Andreas Gursky. Malmö: Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö; Cologne, Oktagon, 1995. Exhibition catalogue.
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Images. London: Tate, 1995. Exhibition catalogue.
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Andreas Gursky: Fotografien 1984 bis heute. Düsseldorf: Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 1998. Exhibition catalogue.
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Andreas Gursky. Fotografien 1994–1998. Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz, 1998. Exhibition catalogue.
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Currents 27. Andreas Gursky. Houston: Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, 1998. Exhibition catalogue.
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Andreas Gursky. New York: Museum of Modern Art; Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2001. Exhibition catalogue.
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Andreas Gursky. Paris: Centre national d’art et de culture Georges-Pompidou, 2002. Exhibition catalogue.
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Andreas Gursky. Cologne: Snoeck, 2007. Edited by Thomas Weski. . With an essay in English and German by Weski, and a text by Don DeLillo, "In Yankee Stadium". Exhibition catalogue.
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Andreas Gursky. Basel: Kunstmuseum; Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2007. Exhibition catalogue.
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Kaiserringträger der Stadt Goslar 2008. Goslar: Mönchehaus Museum; Goslar, Verein zur Förderung moderner Kunst, 2008. Exhibition catalogue.
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Architektur. Darmstadt: Institut Mathildenhöhe; Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz, 2008. Exhibition catalogue.
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Werke – Works 80-08. Kunstmuseen Krefeld/ Moderna Museet, Stockholm/ Vancouver Art Gallery; Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2008. Exhibition catalogue.
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Andreas Gursky. Los Angeles: Gagosian Gallery; New York: Rizzoli, 2010. Exhibition catalogue. Two volumes.
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Andreas Gursky at Louisiana. Louisiana: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art; Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2011. Exhibition catalogue.
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Bangkok. Düsseldorf: Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast; Göttingen: Steidl, 2012. Exhibition catalogue.
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Andreas Gursky. Tokyo: The National Art Centre; Osaka: The National Museum of Art; Tokyo/Osaka: Yomiuri Shimbun, 2013. Exhibition catalogue.
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Landscapes. Exhibition catalogue. Water Mills: Parrish Art Museum; New York: Rizzoli, 2015.
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Andreas Gursky. Steidl/Hayward Gallery, 2018. Exhibition catalog.
Exhibitions
Gursky’s first solo exhibition was held at Galerie Johnen & Schöttle,
Cologne, in 1988. This was followed by
Andreas Gursky, Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland, in 1992. In 2001 he presented a solo exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. Major museum exhibitions include
Haus der Kunst, Munich (2007);
Kunstmuseum Basel (2007–2008);
Andreas Gursky: Werke/Works 1980–2008, Museen Haus Lange and Haus Esters, Krefeld (2008);
Andreas Gursky, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk (2012);
Andreas Gursky, The National Art Center, Tokyo (2013);
Andreas Gursky – nicht abstrakt, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K20, Düsseldorf (2016);
Andreas Gursky,
Hayward Gallery, London (2018); and
Andreas Gursky. Visual Spaces of Today, MAST Bologna (2023). His work has also been shown in international exhibitions such as the
Venice Biennale (1990 and 2004) and the Biennale of Sydney (1996 and 2000).
Public collections
Gursky's work is held, among others, in the following public collections:
See also
Further reading
External links
