Andreas GURSKY (born in 1955)
1993 Paris-Montparnasse
2013 SOLD for £ 1.48 M by Sotheby's
Paris-Montparnasse is the key artwork that opens the major turning point in the career of Andreas Gursky.
Inspired by Bernd and Hilla Becher, he became interested in contemporary architecture. The Immeuble Mouchotte completed in Montparnasse in 1966 is huge with its 18 levels and 750 apartments. It supports the question of the trivialization and dehumanization of modern life, even in Paris.
In 1993, the use of digital techniques in photographic art is new for Gursky. Paris-Montparnasse, 149 x 354 cm, is the result of the mixing of two elementary images.
Compared to conventional photography, the result is amazing. From the left or from the right, the building is endless. Still more important: the perfect alignment of horizontal lines is an unprecedented challenge to the old laws of perspective, a technical feat that is only possible with digital imaging and makes understanding the fascination offered by large later compositions such as Rhein.
Seen from afar, the free or hidden windows constitute some sort of binary grid, which also is well ahead of his time. The visible furnishing and some characters remind us that diversity is still existing despite the uniformity of the living conditions.
A print of Paris-Montparnasse was sold for £ 1.48M from a lower estimate of £ 1M by Sotheby's on October 17, 2013. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Inspired by Bernd and Hilla Becher, he became interested in contemporary architecture. The Immeuble Mouchotte completed in Montparnasse in 1966 is huge with its 18 levels and 750 apartments. It supports the question of the trivialization and dehumanization of modern life, even in Paris.
In 1993, the use of digital techniques in photographic art is new for Gursky. Paris-Montparnasse, 149 x 354 cm, is the result of the mixing of two elementary images.
Compared to conventional photography, the result is amazing. From the left or from the right, the building is endless. Still more important: the perfect alignment of horizontal lines is an unprecedented challenge to the old laws of perspective, a technical feat that is only possible with digital imaging and makes understanding the fascination offered by large later compositions such as Rhein.
Seen from afar, the free or hidden windows constitute some sort of binary grid, which also is well ahead of his time. The visible furnishing and some characters remind us that diversity is still existing despite the uniformity of the living conditions.
A print of Paris-Montparnasse was sold for £ 1.48M from a lower estimate of £ 1M by Sotheby's on October 17, 2013. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1996 Rhein
1
2011 SOLD for $ 2.1M by Sotheby's
Painting, a fine art, and photography, a technical art, intermixed their histories. Copying photos enabled artists to emerge from the constraint of the form to better express their emotions. With Andreas Gursky, photography, inversely, is inspired by the search for the Sublime of the abstract expressionists.
In Gursky's art, the field of view is always unlimited and the texture is a juxtaposition of details, following the theories of Jackson Pollock. With Rhein, he provides a strict and parallel geometry that echoes the new world of Barnett Newman and looks similar as ancient Navajo textiles.
The Rhine river is a natural theme for Gursky, whose artistic vision was created in Düsseldorf. The lapping at the surface of the water forms a crowd just like the spectators in Gursky's Madonna concert. There is no human on Rhein, but the path in the foreground links to our civilization.
Rhein was edited in chromogenic print mounted on Plexiglas in six copies, 146 x 180 cm for the image, 186 x 220 cm including the artist's frame.
One of them was sold for $ 2.1M by Sotheby's on 10 May 10, 2011, lot 9, and the 1/6 for £ 710K by Christie's on 27 June 27, 2012, lot 14.
The success of Rhein had been immediate. Reworking the same image in a bigger size, more scenic, more unlimited, Gursky published Rhein II in 1999, in six copies, 185 x 364 cm.
In Gursky's art, the field of view is always unlimited and the texture is a juxtaposition of details, following the theories of Jackson Pollock. With Rhein, he provides a strict and parallel geometry that echoes the new world of Barnett Newman and looks similar as ancient Navajo textiles.
The Rhine river is a natural theme for Gursky, whose artistic vision was created in Düsseldorf. The lapping at the surface of the water forms a crowd just like the spectators in Gursky's Madonna concert. There is no human on Rhein, but the path in the foreground links to our civilization.
Rhein was edited in chromogenic print mounted on Plexiglas in six copies, 146 x 180 cm for the image, 186 x 220 cm including the artist's frame.
One of them was sold for $ 2.1M by Sotheby's on 10 May 10, 2011, lot 9, and the 1/6 for £ 710K by Christie's on 27 June 27, 2012, lot 14.
The success of Rhein had been immediate. Reworking the same image in a bigger size, more scenic, more unlimited, Gursky published Rhein II in 1999, in six copies, 185 x 364 cm.
2
2013 SOLD for $ 1.92M by Phillips
The copy 5/6 of Rhein was sold for $ 1.92M from a lower estimate of $ 1M by Phillips on May 16, 2013, lot 7.
3
2014 SOLD for $ 1.8M by Sotheby's
A Rhein was sold for $ 1.8M by Sotheby's on November 12, 2014, lot 443.
1997 Chicago
2013 SOLD for £ 1.54M by Sotheby's
A crowd from a distance is a homogeneous texture. When we come closer, each individual is physically unique, thinking of specific things, busy in personal action, but we may doubt whether their differences have a real meaning.
That impossible duality between individual and crowd captured Gursky's attention throughout his career. Every water drop in the river may also have its specific existence. The frantic bustle of the huge halls of stock exchanges around the world fueled his creativity since 1990.
On June 25, 2013, Sotheby's dispersed a collection of Stock exchanges by Gursky that enables to track the evolution of his art. Three of them belong to an early phase.
Edited in 1990 in four copies, Tokyo, 129 x 167 cm, is a documentary photo in a careful geometry, where people seem to have a personality. It was sold for £ 620K.
In 1994, Hong Kong is a diptych. The swarming man is dominated by an implacable geometry that he does not perceive and a fortiori no longer controls. Each element measures 126 x 187 cm. It was sold for £ 480K.
Chicago in 1997, 145 x 202 cm, is a masterpiece of the new techniques of image processing assisted with computer. The unlimited and homogeneous crowd certainly does not include two identical individuals. It was sold for £ 1.54M from a lower estimate of £ 700K, lot 28. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
The above dimensions do not include the frames.
That impossible duality between individual and crowd captured Gursky's attention throughout his career. Every water drop in the river may also have its specific existence. The frantic bustle of the huge halls of stock exchanges around the world fueled his creativity since 1990.
On June 25, 2013, Sotheby's dispersed a collection of Stock exchanges by Gursky that enables to track the evolution of his art. Three of them belong to an early phase.
Edited in 1990 in four copies, Tokyo, 129 x 167 cm, is a documentary photo in a careful geometry, where people seem to have a personality. It was sold for £ 620K.
In 1994, Hong Kong is a diptych. The swarming man is dominated by an implacable geometry that he does not perceive and a fortiori no longer controls. Each element measures 126 x 187 cm. It was sold for £ 480K.
Chicago in 1997, 145 x 202 cm, is a masterpiece of the new techniques of image processing assisted with computer. The unlimited and homogeneous crowd certainly does not include two identical individuals. It was sold for £ 1.54M from a lower estimate of £ 700K, lot 28. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
The above dimensions do not include the frames.
1997 Untitled VI
2012 SOLD for $ 2M by Sotheby's
to be narrated later
Link to catalogue.
1998 Los Angeles
1
2017 SOLD for £ 1.7M by Phillips
The art of Andreas Gursky is unique for his technique and his achievements. His photos displaying an unlimited scenery are formed of a dense pattern of hundreds of elements different from each other even when he uses a digital processing. The observer who moves closer or away from the image has a continuously changing vision like a link between the cosmic world and everyday life.
A student to Bernd and Hilla Becher from 1980 to 1987 at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf where he also teaches since 2010, Gursky uses a large format for the shooting and implements his pictures with an impeccable geometric rigor. Like his mentors he deals with different subjects under similar viewing angles that invite for comparisons.
He is the leading artist for the photographic printing in very large sizes. In chronological order Los Angeles, Cibachrome print 158 x 316 cm prepared in 1998 and exhibited in 1999, is a step between the Rhein-I 146 x 181 cm of 1996 and the Rhein II 185 x 364 cm of 1999.
Los Angeles is a bird's-eye view encompassing the entire conurbation at night as a galactic form illuminated from the ground by the human activity and upper-lined by an orange pollution halo that simulates the rotundity of the Earth. Three wide linear avenues join at the horizon in a perfectly symmetrical figure. This bright stripe of the city separates the foreground and the sky made in a same deep black.
Los Angeles was edited in six copies. Mounted in an author's frame and protected by a Plexiglas, 4/6 was sold for £ 1.7M by Phillips on October 6, 2017, lot 24. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
A student to Bernd and Hilla Becher from 1980 to 1987 at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf where he also teaches since 2010, Gursky uses a large format for the shooting and implements his pictures with an impeccable geometric rigor. Like his mentors he deals with different subjects under similar viewing angles that invite for comparisons.
He is the leading artist for the photographic printing in very large sizes. In chronological order Los Angeles, Cibachrome print 158 x 316 cm prepared in 1998 and exhibited in 1999, is a step between the Rhein-I 146 x 181 cm of 1996 and the Rhein II 185 x 364 cm of 1999.
Los Angeles is a bird's-eye view encompassing the entire conurbation at night as a galactic form illuminated from the ground by the human activity and upper-lined by an orange pollution halo that simulates the rotundity of the Earth. Three wide linear avenues join at the horizon in a perfectly symmetrical figure. This bright stripe of the city separates the foreground and the sky made in a same deep black.
Los Angeles was edited in six copies. Mounted in an author's frame and protected by a Plexiglas, 4/6 was sold for £ 1.7M by Phillips on October 6, 2017, lot 24. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
2
2008 SOLD for £ 1.48M by Sotheby's
The number 3/6 of Los Angeles was sold for £ 1.48M by Sotheby's on February 27, 2008, lot 17.
1999 Rhein II
2011 SOLD for $ 4.3M by Christie's
Photographer of the contemporary civilization, Andreas Gursky uses digital image techniques to bring a new vision of the human anthills, in which the individuals are all different while playing absolutely similar roles.
In 1996, with Rhein, he does exactly the opposite. By digital elimination, he empties of all human elements a river landscape taken in Düsseldorf. He thus obtains an original landscape which echoes the minimalist abstractions of the creation of the world by Barnett Newman, the divine horizons of Caspar David Friedrich and the eternal mountains of Hodler.
Rhein is built in a set of horizontal stripes : the gray sky, the opposite side, the slow movement of the river water, the foreground bank divided by a narrow path. The influence of Gerd and Hilla Becher, photographers of the ordinary architecture, is indisputable. The Bechers had taught in Düsseldorf a full-front photography without angular effect.
In 1999 the artist reworks his image which was too small and too square to bring the mystical illusion of the infinite. The landscape is stretched for a more panoramic format and the sky is lightened.
Rhein II is edited with the same techniques as the previous version, also in six copies, with an image format of 185 x 364 cm in a frame 207 x 386 cm. The number 1/6 was sold for $ 4.3M by Christie's on November 8, 2011, lot 44. This copy is one from only two copies in private hands.
In 1996, with Rhein, he does exactly the opposite. By digital elimination, he empties of all human elements a river landscape taken in Düsseldorf. He thus obtains an original landscape which echoes the minimalist abstractions of the creation of the world by Barnett Newman, the divine horizons of Caspar David Friedrich and the eternal mountains of Hodler.
Rhein is built in a set of horizontal stripes : the gray sky, the opposite side, the slow movement of the river water, the foreground bank divided by a narrow path. The influence of Gerd and Hilla Becher, photographers of the ordinary architecture, is indisputable. The Bechers had taught in Düsseldorf a full-front photography without angular effect.
In 1999 the artist reworks his image which was too small and too square to bring the mystical illusion of the infinite. The landscape is stretched for a more panoramic format and the sky is lightened.
Rhein II is edited with the same techniques as the previous version, also in six copies, with an image format of 185 x 364 cm in a frame 207 x 386 cm. The number 1/6 was sold for $ 4.3M by Christie's on November 8, 2011, lot 44. This copy is one from only two copies in private hands.
2001 99 Cent II Diptych
1
2006 SOLD for $ 2.5M by Phillips de Pury
to be narrated later
Link to catalogue.
2
2007 SOLD for £ 1.7M by Sotheby's
to be narrated later
Link to catalogue.
2007 Frankfurt
2010 SOLD for $ 2.1M by Sotheby's
to be narrated later
Link to catalogue.
2007 Pyongyang IV
2010 SOLD for £ 1.33M by Sotheby's
Using digital techniques, Andreas Gursky has managed to drown the individual in the mass. Although all the characters are differentiated, his work is the absolute opposite of the portrait. All gatherings of crowds inspire him : stock exchange, entertainment, political events, sports.
His process is unique. However, the expression of a visual message by a multitude exists also in the most secretive country in the world. The Arirang Mass Games are regularly organized in Pyongyang to exalt the North Korean patriotism. It is both collectivist and popular : the performers are also the spectators and each participant has rehearsed for months the gestures to be executed for being totally integrated within the crowd. There can be nothing similar. Nowhere.
In 2007, Arirang was exceptional. The number of players has probably reached 100,000. Each one is trained to his role played with the rigor of a military parade in a synchronized set.
Behind the gymnasts, the political message is a huge mosaic of colorful paddles waved by 30,000 children, building figurative themes that are modified throughout the show.
Also in 2007, tourists were allowed for a restricted access to this festival whose main goal is to exacerbate the local patriotism. Gursky realized five compositions including a diptych from his photos of the opening ceremony. His technique of reconstructing a global image from photos successively focused on the different distances offers a very high resolution without distortion from foreground to background.
These people do not have an individual existence. In terms of chemistry, they are the atoms of a single material. In terms of printing, they are the pixels of the image. In Arirang's videos it is impossible to discern a specific feature of a gymnast, neither in gesture nor in costume.
Pyongyang I, III, IV and V display gymnastic figures. On the stadium, thousands of gymnasts coordinate their rapid gestures to build global figures of great geometric simplicity and beauty. In the steps thousands of children hold colored cards, in turn assembling the various visual symbols of the North Korean regime.
Pyongyang IV, Cibachrome 304 x 207 cm, shows the gymnasts in tight ranks, with the earth as a cake in honor of the 95th anniversary of the late Kim Il Sung. It was edited in seven copies. One of them was sold for £ 1.33M by Sotheby's on 15 October 2010, lot 6.
A Pyongyang V 307 x 219 cm was sold for £ 1.08M by Sotheby's on June 30, 2014, lot 41. Pyongyang III is a panoramic format, 206 x 422 cm. In a phase when the background is inactive, it offers a composition in horizontal stripes that from afar looks like the masterpiece of the artist, the Rhein II of 1999.
Pyongyang II is a diptych of two elements 185 x 237 cm each on Plexiglas 207 x 259 cm. It shows a figure of troops in successive squares with in the background a flight of doves on one view and a pair of Kim Il Sung pistols on the other, meaning that peace is ensured by military force.
The Pyongyang II 4/6 diptych was sold for $ 960K by Christie's on September 26, 2013, lot 138. The 6/6 was sold for £ 830K by Christie's on February 14, 2012, lot 38, and passed at Sotheby's on March 6, 2020, lot 265.
His process is unique. However, the expression of a visual message by a multitude exists also in the most secretive country in the world. The Arirang Mass Games are regularly organized in Pyongyang to exalt the North Korean patriotism. It is both collectivist and popular : the performers are also the spectators and each participant has rehearsed for months the gestures to be executed for being totally integrated within the crowd. There can be nothing similar. Nowhere.
In 2007, Arirang was exceptional. The number of players has probably reached 100,000. Each one is trained to his role played with the rigor of a military parade in a synchronized set.
Behind the gymnasts, the political message is a huge mosaic of colorful paddles waved by 30,000 children, building figurative themes that are modified throughout the show.
Also in 2007, tourists were allowed for a restricted access to this festival whose main goal is to exacerbate the local patriotism. Gursky realized five compositions including a diptych from his photos of the opening ceremony. His technique of reconstructing a global image from photos successively focused on the different distances offers a very high resolution without distortion from foreground to background.
These people do not have an individual existence. In terms of chemistry, they are the atoms of a single material. In terms of printing, they are the pixels of the image. In Arirang's videos it is impossible to discern a specific feature of a gymnast, neither in gesture nor in costume.
Pyongyang I, III, IV and V display gymnastic figures. On the stadium, thousands of gymnasts coordinate their rapid gestures to build global figures of great geometric simplicity and beauty. In the steps thousands of children hold colored cards, in turn assembling the various visual symbols of the North Korean regime.
Pyongyang IV, Cibachrome 304 x 207 cm, shows the gymnasts in tight ranks, with the earth as a cake in honor of the 95th anniversary of the late Kim Il Sung. It was edited in seven copies. One of them was sold for £ 1.33M by Sotheby's on 15 October 2010, lot 6.
A Pyongyang V 307 x 219 cm was sold for £ 1.08M by Sotheby's on June 30, 2014, lot 41. Pyongyang III is a panoramic format, 206 x 422 cm. In a phase when the background is inactive, it offers a composition in horizontal stripes that from afar looks like the masterpiece of the artist, the Rhein II of 1999.
Pyongyang II is a diptych of two elements 185 x 237 cm each on Plexiglas 207 x 259 cm. It shows a figure of troops in successive squares with in the background a flight of doves on one view and a pair of Kim Il Sung pistols on the other, meaning that peace is ensured by military force.
The Pyongyang II 4/6 diptych was sold for $ 960K by Christie's on September 26, 2013, lot 138. The 6/6 was sold for £ 830K by Christie's on February 14, 2012, lot 38, and passed at Sotheby's on March 6, 2020, lot 265.
2009 Chicago III
2013 SOLD for £ 2.15M by Sotheby's
Amidst the five pieces by Gursky sold on June 25, 2013 by Sotheby's, two photos were made in a later phase of the Stock Exchanges series.
As he had done between Rhein and Rhein II, Gursky reworked Chicago from his database of images. Made in 2009 from photos of 1999, the monumental Chicago III, 201 x 285 cm, offers to the observer a texture similar as the most careful drippings by Pollock. It was sold for £ 2.15M from a lower estimate of £ 600K, lot 26. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
The white robes of Kuwait, 2008, 210 x 286 cm, form an abstraction in a lighter tone. It was sold for £ 660K from a lower estimate of £ 400K.
The above dimensions do not include frames.
As he had done between Rhein and Rhein II, Gursky reworked Chicago from his database of images. Made in 2009 from photos of 1999, the monumental Chicago III, 201 x 285 cm, offers to the observer a texture similar as the most careful drippings by Pollock. It was sold for £ 2.15M from a lower estimate of £ 600K, lot 26. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
The white robes of Kuwait, 2008, 210 x 286 cm, form an abstraction in a lighter tone. It was sold for £ 660K from a lower estimate of £ 400K.
The above dimensions do not include frames.
