Thomas Ruff

Germany

Thomas Ruff (born 1958 in Zell am Harmersbach) studied from 1977-1985 at the Düsseldorf Art Academy under Bernd and Hilla Becher. From 2000-2006 he headed the photography class there as a professor.

He gained his first international attention with his first major solo exhibition, which took place in 1989/1990 at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Magasin in Grenoble and the Kunsthalle Zurich. In 1992 he participated in Documenta IX and exhibited in the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1995. Since the late 1980s, he has exhibited worldwide in countless solo and group shows.

The first retrospective solo exhibition took place in 2001 at the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden and traveled to many European venues until 2004. Other important solo exhibitions followed at Haus der Kunst, Munich (2012), National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art (2016), Whitechapel Gallery in London (2017), K20, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf (2020) and most recently at Musée d’art moderne et contemporain de Saint-Ètienne Métropole (2022). Thomas Ruff lives and works in Düsseldorf.

d. doors

o. of

pe. perception

“As an artist I always wanted to question reality, the way we represent it as well as the way we look at it. But I also wanted to go beyond what you see or what is imaginable.

The images I create are simultaneously organic and nonorganic. They remind you of things you might have seen in nature, but at the same time they seem to be unfamiliar and unworldly. You can go on a journey through a fantastical landscape, without knowing where exactly you are. Some of them are like looking into outer space, others resemble an aquatic environment, others again are similar to forestscapes. And when you zoom into the images the structures resemble seeds or fronds and you can get completely lost. And even though the imagery appears to be natural, they are technological images – created with a software on a computer printed out by a machine. With those images I am able to combine traditional image making with computational technology and subtly give shape to the world that is about to be.”

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