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Andreas Gursky's Monumental Photographs: the Media Nowa

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Andreas Gursky's Monumental Photographs: the Media Nowa JUST WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES GURSKY’S PHOTOS SO DIFFERENT, SO APPEALING? 1 ON ANDREAS GURSKY’S PICTORIAL STRATEGY AND THE EMBLEMATIC NATURE OF HIS ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHS RALF BEIL 2 Andreas Gursky’s monumental photographs: The media nowa - phy have since then never stood still. Is it also just coincidence approach whose intention is nothing less than to find the one, Frankfurt, 2007), exchanges ( Tokyo Stock Exchange, 1990; Hong days uses them as eye-catchers (fig. 1); avant-garde scholars use that Thomas Demand’s C-print Wand (Mural), made in 1999 (fig. universal image that contains in compressed form all the values Kong Stock Exchange, 1994; Chicago Board of Trade I, 1997; 15 them as pictorial arguments to strengthen their thrust when diag - 3), serves as eye-catcher in the artist’s home, a loft designed by of civilized existence.” Chicago Board of Trade II, 1999; Kuwait Stock Exchange, 2007), 3 nosing today. 2 His works precisely reflect the spirit of the age. But architects Herzog & De Meuron? hotel complexes ( Atlanta, 1996; Times Square, 1997; San Fran - what is it that makes them what they are? And makes them so Gursky always has his eye on the world, seeking to transpose the ARCHITECTURE AS THEME AND SYMPTOM cisco, 1998; Shanghai, 2000; Avenue of the Americas, 2001), lux - different? What is it that makes them important, given the model abstraction into the reality of images: He is the peintre de la The compression of the issues and the values of civilized exis - ury business ( Prada I, 1996; Prada II, 1997; Ohne Titel V [Unti - tremendous amount of image data available in an “age of total vie moderne of the global age. On this, the media pundits of today tence into a single “image that could stand for all images” 16 can tled V ], 1997; Prada III, 1998; Ohne Titel IX [Untitled IX] , 1998; visual control of space,” 3 when the entire world has become agree. Ulf Poschardt, writing in Berlin-based tageszeitung, con- be best discerned in terms of theme with a view to architecture as Dior Homme, 2004), apartment blocks ( Osaka, 1990; Paris, accessible as a visual navigational space, in a moment in history siders Gursky to be “a thinker avant-la-lettre of a globalized cul - the quintessential human living space, and not just in the case of Montparnasse, 1993; Copan, 2002), factory halls ( Siemens, Karl - when we can access image after image on any random buzzword, ture, a man as precise as he is brilliant and modest.” 10 Niklas Paris, Montparnasse. For this reason, architecture is one of sruhe, 1991; Schiesser, Diptych, 1991; Nha Trang, 2004), political in an instant, using Google Images? Maak commented in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on visiting Gursky’s central themes: not en passant but always monumental, arenas ( Pyongyang I—Pyongyang V, 2007), new custom-designed Andreas Gursky is considered a “superstar of global photo art” 4 Gursky’s studio prior to the major retrospective in Munich’s be it massively above ground, as in Hong Kong and Shanghai suburbs ( La Défense, Panorama, 1987/1993; Sha Tin, 1994; Happy and was until recently “the world’s most expensive living photo Haus der Kunst in 2007: “In the final instance, his monumental Bank, Hong Kong, underground, as in Kamiokande , or on the Valley II, 1995), ancient monuments ( Theben-West [Thebes, 1 artist,” 5 to cite but two of the forceful honorary titles the media photographs of raves and car races, of Prada stores and cheap social and geographical peripheries, as with Ohne Titel XIII West] , 1993; Cheops, 2005), swimming pools ( Schwimmbad have conferred on him. And he certainly seems to be more than supermarkets, of mass animal husbandry and waste dumps are (Mexiko) (Untitled XIII [Mexico] ). His preferred stylistic tool is Ratingen [Ratingen Swimming Pool], 1987; Teneriffa Swimming 4 familiar with the right recipe for generating meaning. Constantly the new history paintings of democratic mass society.” 11 Birgit the long shot, not only in the macro-perspective, as in Los Angeles, Pool, 1987), highrise construction sites ( Hong Kong, Island, 1994; hunting down the presence of our fundamentally urbanized Sonna bears this assessment out in Neue Zürcher Zeitung after but also for micro-views, as with Ohne Titel I (Untitled I ) and Happy Valley I, 1995), panoramas of cities by night ( Athens, Dip - planet, he is sometimes clearly ahead of his times. In 1992 he studying the Munich exhibition: “Blown up as large as five Brasilia, Plenarsaal I (Brasilia, Plenary Hall I ). The digitally tych, 1995; Los Angeles, 1999), discos and techno halls ( May Day took his Cairo, Diptych (fig. 2) of a crossroads in the Egyptian cap - meters, these images are presumably the icons to which people processed or made pictorial reality of architectural spaces reflects I, 1997; Cocoon, 2007), plenary halls ( Bundestag, Bonn, 1998; ital from a bird’s-eye perspective—Google Earth avant Google will refer in a hundred years’ time when seeking to pin-point in in condensed form the world of today ( 99 Cent, Chicago Board of Brasilia, Plenarsaal II, 1999), cemetery architecture ( Ayamonte, Earth 6—and assigned it far greater power as an image and depth history the normative images of late capitalist commodity and Trade II ), architecture as the engine of signification ( São Paulo, Sé 1997), trade-fair halls ( Autosalon, Paris, 1993), subway stations of focus than current satellite images on the Internet. 7 While the mass society.” 12 And reinforces it further when she writes: “which and Brasilia, Plenarsaal II ), usually captured by a panoramic view (São Paulo, Sé, 2002), shopping malls ( Toys“R”Us, 1999), anthropological question of the Google Earth generation would other photographer could down through the years periodically (Stateville, Illinois ), often from the distance of a vertiginous height libraries ( Bibliothek [Library ], 1999), banks ( Hong Kong and appear to be a decidedly unmetaphysical “Where am I?” 8 and repeatedly achieve that major project of grasping our (Nha Trang). For Andreas Gursky, “it is not the decisive moment Shanghai Bank, Hong Kong, 1994), prisons ( Stateville, Illinois, Gursky’s striking focuses on the spaces in which we live continue world?” 13 And Holger Liebs simply noted in Süddeutsche Zeitung: but the decisive standpoint that is the measure of all artistic 2002), sports halls ( Klitschko, 1999 [fig. 6]), slums ( Ohne Titel to ask: “What are we? Why are we? And what does all this around “Andreas Gursky is the first photographer of globalization. In all things” (fig. 4). 17 XIII [Mexiko], 2002), universities ( Uni Bochum, 1988), restau - us do to us?” respects.” 14 Just how important architecture is as a theme in Andreas rants ( Restaurant, St. Moritz, 1991), supermarkets ( 99 Cent, So far, so good. It remains to be said that none of this is new, Gursky’s oeuvre is already evidenced by a quantitative overview: 1999), and research labs ( Kamiokande, 2007). In short, all of AROUND THE WORLD IN A HUNDRED IMAGES however. On the contrary, it has been a leitmotif in interpreta - Of the some 100 works since 1988, over half focus explicitly on them are significant places where today’s capital, things, and 5 Is it mere coincidence that Andreas Gursky’s first solo exhibition tions of his photographs for more than a decade. As early as 1995, the theme of architecture. A simple outline of the central archi - people move or are moved back and forth. 18 in 1987 was held in an airport, that locus of contemporary urban - Hans Irrek stated in a monograph on Paris, Montparnasse, tectural themes of his photography highlights the first typologi - Gursky’s architectural themes are not only the locations of build - ity and mobility par excellence? 9 At any rate, Gursky’s global all- Andreas Gursky’s incunabulum of architecture photography: cal focal points: Gursky photographs and stages airports ( Charles ing work, but the venues of contemporary urbanity in terms of over movements via digitally manipulated monumental photogra - “Gursky’s work offers us the rare opportunity to follow an de Gaulle, 1992 [fig. 5]; Schiphol, 1994; Airport, Hong Kong, 1994; the motto that architect, urbanist, and architectural theorist Rem 1. Andreas Gursky’s 99 Cent on the cover of Die Zeit, October 31, 2007 2. Andreas Gursky, Cairo, Dipthych, 1992. C-print, 186.4 x 228.8 cm each 3. Thomas Demand, Wand (Mural) , 1999. C-print, 183.5 x 270 cm, Collection Andreas Gursky 4. Andreas Gursky during the shooting of Nha Trang, 2004. Photograph by Hans-Jürgen Burkard 5. Andreas Gursky, Charles de Gaulle, 1992. C-print, 165 x 200 cm 6. Andreas Gursky, Klitschko, 1999. C-print, 207 x 261 cm 6 8 9.
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