Medium: Imprinted on photopaper
Edition 100 + 20 A.P.
Image size: 40 x 30 cm
Paper size: 50 x 40 cm
Signed, dated and numbered
Born in southwest Germany in 1958, Thomas Ruff has long been viewed as a key figure of the Düsseldorf School of photography, having studied under such greats as Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Düsseldorf Art Academy (where he later taught). Ruff earns his reputation in part through his continual innovation, leading him to explore in recent years the experimental possibilities offered by digital image-making and camera-less photography.
The exhibition at Zurich‘s Mai 36 consisted of new works from Ruff’s “Photograms” and “Negatives” series. The “Photograms” on view are huge prints, with six pieces nearly 8 by 6 feet and one even larger work in landscape format. They are glorious yet enigmatic images, and no wonder, for Ruff creates them with an elaborate process he devised himself. Whereas Surrealists like Man Ray generated monochrome photograms by placing objects on light-sensitive paper and exposing the materials to the sun, Ruff reimagines the photogram as an entirely digital technique. Using neither physical objects nor light-sensitive backgrounds, Ruff instead programs the vectors of a form into animation software customarily used to make 3-D films. Within that digital environment the form is subjected to numerous virtual light sources of different intensities and colors, resulting in the final image. The operation requires mammoth computing power, and the seven photograms in the main exhibition space necessitated the use of the supercomputer JUROPA at a scientific research center in Jülich, Germany. Out of the resulting images, phg.09_II (all works 2014) most resembles the series’ Surrealist forebears, with its white, coglike shapes casting pale shadows on a black background. Elsewhere, phg.02_II gave away next to nothing about its initial subject: yellow, tawny orange, pale green and gray refractions and shadows articulate a reverse S-shape that surges from the bottom right to the top left with a sort of Futurist dynamism.
A fotografia de Thomas Ruff abrange todas as possibilidades materiais do meio. O artista usa uma variedade de técnicas que vão desde a produção antiquada de câmara escura até a manipulação digital enquanto explora a autenticidade, a apropriação e os limites da fotografia como forma de arte; seus interesses se alinham mais com a arte conceitual do que com a fotografia documental ou encenada, e seus temas abrangem retratos, paisagens, nus, arquitetura e formas abstratas.
Ruff ganhou destaque como parte da Escola de Düsseldorf, um grupo vagamente afiliado de fotógrafos que estudou com Bernd e Hilla Becher. A serialidade de seus temas se inspira na adoção de "tipologias" pelos Bechers em seu próprio trabalho. Ruff expôs em Nova York, Londres, Tóquio, Berlim, Paris e muitas outras cidades. Seu trabalho pertence às coleções do Art Institute of Chicago, do Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, do Metropolitan Museum of Art, do Moderna Museet, do Guggenheim Museum e do S.M.A.K. Museu de Arte Contemporânea, entre outros.
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