This exhibition of the renowned German photographer Thomas Struth (b. 1954), presents a comprehensive survey of his genre-defining oeuvre. Covering four decades of work and every phase of his career, the exhibition focuses on Struth's social interests, which represent the important forces of his influential artistic development. Comprised of more than 130 works, this exhibition is the largest survey of his artistic career to date. It brings together never-before-shown early works and collected research material drawn from his archive; these, elucidate the far-reaching and long-standing ideas behind the works and demonstrate the process of his artistic translation up to the perfection of the image.
The survey links these early ideas to well-known work groups such as "Straßen" [Streets], "Unbewusste Orte" [Unconscious Places], "Portraits", "Museumsbilder" [Museum Pictures], "Paradise", and "Audiences." These are placed in dialogue with the slide projection Nachtprojekt [Night Project] produced for Skulptur Projekte Münster in 1987, as well as video portraits and other video projections, the recent photographic series from "Nature & Politics," and site-specific works such as Löwenzahnzimmer [Dandelion Room], the landscape and flower photographs created for hospital rooms in Winterthur, Switzerland. This interplay highlights the artist’s ability to combine analysis and pictorial invention in multifaceted works and techniques that result in overarching and powerful photographic images.
The exhibition is curated by Thomas Weski and organized by Haus der Kunst.
"Thomas Struth: Figure Ground" is made possible by exclusive and major funding from the Alexander Tutsek-Stiftung, Munich.
