Andreas Gursky

{{Infobox artist

| name = Andreas Gursky

| image = Gursky-andreas-010313-2.jpg

| image_size = 250px

| alt =

| caption = Gursky in 2013

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1955|01|15|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Leipzig, East Germany (now Germany)

| death_date =

| death_place =

| spouse =

| field = Photography

| training =

| movement = Düsseldorf School of Photography

| works = Rhein II

| website = [http://www.andreasgursky.com/en Official website]

}}

Andreas Gursky (born 15 January 1955) is a German photographer and professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany.{{cite web|last1=Kunstakademie Düsseldorf|title=Prof. Andreas Gursky|url=http://www.kunstakademie-duesseldorf.de/fachbereiche/kunst/freie-kunst/prof-andreas-gursky.html|access-date=14 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150708135329/http://www.kunstakademie-duesseldorf.de/fachbereiche/kunst/freie-kunst/prof-andreas-gursky.html|archive-date=8 July 2015|url-status=dead}}

He is known for his large format architecture and landscape colour photographs, often using a high point of view. His works reach some of the highest prices in the art market among living photographers. His photograph Rhein II was sold at Christie's for $4,338,500 on 8 November 2011. At the time it was the most expensive photograph ever sold at auction.{{cite web|title=Sale 2480 / Lot 44|url=http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5496716|publisher=Christie's|access-date=13 November 2011}}

Gursky shares a studio with Laurenz Berges, Thomas Ruff and Axel Hütte on the Hansaallee, in Düsseldorf.{{cite web|last1=Ruff|first1=Thomas|title=FiftyFifty Gallery, Biography of|url=http://www.fiftyfifty-galerie.de/galerie/626/biografie|access-date=15 July 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808074647/http://www.fiftyfifty-galerie.de/galerie/626/biografie|archive-date=8 August 2014}} The building, a former electricity station, was transformed into an artists studio and living quarters, in 2001, by architects Herzog & de Meuron, of Tate Modern fame.{{cite web|last1=de Meuron|first1=Herzog|title=Project 172|url=http://www.herzogdemeuron.com/index/projects/complete-works/151-175/172-studios-for-two-artists.html|access-date=15 July 2014}} In 2010–11, the architects worked again on the building, designing a gallery in the basement.{{cite web|last1=de Meuron|first1=Herzog|title=Project 340|url=http://www.herzogdemeuron.com/index/projects/complete-works/326-350/340-atelier-in-duesseldorf.html|access-date=15 July 2014}}

Early life and education

Gursky was born in Leipzig, East Germany in 1955. His family relocated to West Germany, moving to Essen and then Düsseldorf by the end of 1957. From 1978 to 1981, he attended the Universität Gesamthochschule Essen, where he studied visual communication, led by photographers Otto Steinert and Michael Schmidt.{{Cite web|url=https://www.school-scout.de/vorschau/53507/andreas-gursky-kuenstlerpaket.pdf|title=PDF excerpt biography Andreas Gursky|accessdate=10 September 2021}} Gursky is said to have attended the university to hear Steinert, however Steinert died in 1978 and Gursky only got to attend a few of his lectures.{{Cite web|url=https://fotofeinkost.de/andreas-gursky-werke-80-08/|title=fotofeinkost | Andreas Gursky Werke 80-08|date=4 January 2009|access-date=23 December 2019|archive-date=23 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223220445/https://fotofeinkost.de/andreas-gursky-werke-80-08/|url-status=dead}}

Between 1981 and 1987 at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, Gursky received critical training and influence from his teachers Hilla and Bernd Becher,Tomkins, Calvin. The New Yorker. "The Big Picture." 22 January 2001.{{cite journal|last1=Biro|first1=Matthew|title=From Analogue to Digital Photography: Bernd and Hilla Becher and Andreas Gursky|journal=History of Photography|year=2012|volume=36|issue=3|pages=353–366|issn=0308-7298|doi=10.1080/03087298.2012.686242|s2cid=194076676|via=Taylor & Francis}} a photographic team known for their distinctive, dispassionate method of systematically cataloging industrial machinery and architecture.Marien, Mary Warner. Photography. 2006, pp. 371–72 Gursky demonstrates a similarly methodical approach in his own larger-scale photography. Other notable influences are the British landscape photographer John Davies, whose highly detailed high vantage point images had a strong effect on the street level photographs Gursky was then making, and to a lesser degree the American photographer Joel Sternfeld.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

Career and style

Before the 1990s, Gursky did not digitally manipulate his images.Warren, Lynne. Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography. 2006, page 644 In the years since, Gursky has been frank about his reliance on computers to edit and enhance his pictures, creating an art of spaces larger than the subjects photographed.{{Citation needed|date=December 2008}} Writing in The New Yorker magazine, the critic Peter Schjeldahl called these pictures "vast," "splashy," "entertaining," and "literally unbelievable."Schjeldahl, Peter. The New Yorker. "Reality Clicks." 27 May 2002. In the same publication, critic Calvin Tomkins described Gursky as one of the "two masters" of the Düsseldorf School of Photography. In 2001, Tomkins described the experience of confronting one of Gursky's large works:

{{quote|text=

The first time I saw photographs by Andreas Gursky...I had the disorienting sensation that something was happening—happening to me, I suppose, although it felt more generalized than that. Gursky's huge, panoramic colour prints—some of them up to six feet high by ten feet long—had the presence, the formal power, and in several cases the majestic aura of nineteenth-century landscape paintings, without losing any of their meticulously detailed immediacy as photographs. Their subject matter was the contemporary world, seen dispassionately and from a distance.

}}

The perspective in many of Gursky's photographs is drawn from an elevated vantage point. This position enables the viewer to encounter scenes, encompassing both centre and periphery, which are ordinarily beyond reach.[https://whitecube.com/exhibitions/exhibition/andreas_gursky_masons_yard_2007 Andreas Gursky: New work, 23 March—5 May 2007] White Cube, London, UK. This sweeping perspective has been linked to an engagement with globalization.{{cite journal|last1=Williams-Wynn|first1=Christopher|title=Images of equivalence: exchange-value in Andreas Gursky's photographs and production method|journal=Photography & Culture|volume=9|issue=1|pages=3–24|year=2016|issn=1751-4517|doi=10.1080/17514517.2016.1153264|s2cid=147375671|via=Taylor & Francis}} Visually, Gursky is drawn to large, anonymous, man-made spaces—high-rise facades at night, office lobbies, stock exchanges, the interiors of big box retailers (See his print 99 Cent II Diptychon). In a 2001 retrospective, New York's Museum of Modern Art described the artist's work, "a sophisticated art of unembellished observation. It is thanks to the artfulness of Gursky's fictions that we recognize his world as our own."Museum of Modern Art. "Andreas Gursky." Exhibition Catalog, 2001 Gursky's style is enigmatic and deadpan. There is little to no explanation or manipulation on the works. His photography is straightforward.{{citation|title= From Shore to Gursky, Part I|author=David Grosz|work=Art+Auction|url=http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/25152/from-shore-to-gursky-part-i|access-date=16 April 2008}}

The photograph 99 Cent (1999) was taken at a 99 Cents Only store on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, and depicts its interior as a stretched horizontal composition of parallel shelves, intersected by vertical white columns, in which the abundance of "neatly labeled packets are transformed into fields of colour, generated by endless arrays of identical products, reflecting off the shiny ceiling" (Wyatt Mason).[https://www.ubs.com/microsites/art_collection/home/the-collection/a-z/informations/gursky-andreas/99_cent.html Andreas Gursky, 99 Cent, 2001] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140905033232/https://www.ubs.com/microsites/art_collection/home/the-collection/a-z/informations/gursky-andreas/99_cent.html |date=5 September 2014}} UBS Art Collection, Zürich. Retrieved 15 March 2016. Rhein II (1999), depicts a stretch of the river Rhine outside Düsseldorf, immediately legible as a view of a straight stretch of water, but also as an abstract configuration of horizontal bands of colour of varying widths.[http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=27163&tabview=text The Andreas Gursky: Rhine II (1999)] Tate Collection. In his six-part series Ocean I-VI (2009–2010), Gursky used high-definition satellite photographs which he augmented from various picture sources on the Internet.Andreas Gursky, 1 May-21 June 2010, Sprüth Magers, Berlin.

Art market

Most of Gursky's photographs come in editions of six with two artist's proofs.Sarah Thornton [http://www.economist.com/node/14484072 Bedfellows. Two artists who understand the beauty of business], The Economist; 20 September 2009.

Since 2010, Gursky has been represented by Gagosian Gallery.Carol Vogel (4 November 2010), [https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/05/arts/design/05vogel.html New At The Galleries] The New York Times. He held the record for highest price paid at auction for a single photographic image from 2011 to 2022. His print Rhein II sold for US$4,338,500 at Christie's, New York on 8 November 2011.[http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5496716 Public Lot Details] (November 2011){{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/nov/11/andreas-gursky-rhine-ii-photograph|title=Andreas Gursky's Rhine II photograph sells for $4.3m|access-date=13 November 2011|author=Maev Kennedy|date=11 November 2011|work=The Guardian}} In 2013, Chicago Board of Trade III (1999–2009) sold for $3,298,755, an auction record for a Gursky exchange photo.[https://www.paulfrasercollectibles.com/blogs/art-photography/gurskys-chicago-stock-exchange-photo-sells-with-169-increase Gursky's Chicago stock exchange photo sells with 169% increase, Paul Fraser Collectibles]

Publications

Andreas Gursky. Cologne: Galerie Johnen + Schöttle, 1988. Exhibition catalogue.
Andreas Gursky. Krefeld: Museum Haus Lange, 1989. Exhibition catalogue.
Siemens Kulturprogramm: Projekte 1992. Munich: Siemens AG, 1992. Exhibition catalogue.
Andreas Gursky.Cologne: Buchhandlung Walther König; Zurich: Kunsthalle, 1992. Exhibition catalogue.
Fotografien 1984–1993. Hamburg: Deichtorhallen; Munich: Schirmer/ Mosel, 1994. Exhibition catalogue.
Montparnasse. Cologne: Portikus & Oktagon, 1995. Exhibition catalogue.
Andreas Gursky. Malmö: Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö; Cologne, Oktagon, 1995. Exhibition catalogue.
Images. London: Tate, 1995. Exhibition catalogue.
Andreas Gursky: Fotografien 1984 bis heute. Düsseldorf: Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 1998. Exhibition catalogue.
Andreas Gursky. Fotografien 1994–1998. Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz, 1998. Exhibition catalogue.
Currents 27. Andreas Gursky. Houston: Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, 1998. Exhibition catalogue.
Andreas Gursky. New York: Museum of Modern Art; Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2001. Exhibition catalogue.
Andreas Gursky. Paris: Centre national d’art et de culture Georges-Pompidou, 2002. Exhibition catalogue.
Andreas Gursky. Cologne: Snoeck, 2007. Edited by Thomas Weski. {{ISBN|978-3-936859-62-1}}. With an essay in English and German by Weski, and a text by Don DeLillo, "In Yankee Stadium". Exhibition catalogue.
Andreas Gursky. Basel: Kunstmuseum; Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2007. Exhibition catalogue.
Kaiserringträger der Stadt Goslar 2008. Goslar: Mönchehaus Museum; Goslar, Verein zur Förderung moderner Kunst, 2008. Exhibition catalogue.
Architektur. Darmstadt: Institut Mathildenhöhe; Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz, 2008. Exhibition catalogue.
Werke – Works 80-08. Kunstmuseen Krefeld/ Moderna Museet, Stockholm/ Vancouver Art Gallery; Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2008. Exhibition catalogue.
Andreas Gursky. Los Angeles: Gagosian Gallery; New York: Rizzoli, 2010. Exhibition catalogue. Two volumes.
Andreas Gursky at Louisiana. Louisiana: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art; Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2011. Exhibition catalogue.
Bangkok. Düsseldorf: Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast; Göttingen: Steidl, 2012. Exhibition catalogue.
Andreas Gursky. Tokyo: The National Art Centre; Osaka: The National Museum of Art; Tokyo/Osaka: Yomiuri Shimbun, 2013. Exhibition catalogue.
Landscapes. Exhibition catalogue. Water Mills: Parrish Art Museum; New York: Rizzoli, 2015.
Andreas Gursky. Steidl/Hayward Gallery, 2018. Exhibition catalog.

Exhibitions

Gursky first exhibited his work in Germany in 1985. His first solo gallery show was held at Galerie Johnen & Schöttle, Cologne, in 1988. Gursky's first one-person museum exhibition in the United States opened at the Milwaukee Art Museum in 1998,{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} and his work was the subject of a retrospective organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2001, and touring). Further museum exhibitions include Werke-Works 80-08, Kunstmuseen Krefeld (2008, and touring); and Haus der Kunst, Munich (2007, and touring), Kunstmuseum Basel (20.10.2007–24.02.2008).{{Cite web |last=VADIAN. NET AG |first=St Gallen |title=Fotokünstler Andreas Gursky im Kunstmuseum Basel |url=https://www.fotografie.ch/de/Fotokuenstler+Andreas+Gursky+im+Kunstmuseum+Basel/290403/detail.htm |access-date=2025-02-25 |website=www.fotografie.ch |language=de}} His work has been seen in international exhibitions, including the Internationale Foto-Triennale in Esslingen (1989 and 1995), the Venice Biennale (1990 and 2004), and the Biennale of Sydney (1996 and 2000).[http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-full/bio/?artist_name=Andreas%20Gursky&page=1&f=Name&cr=2 Andreas Gursky profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402060741/http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-full/bio/?artist_name=Andreas%20Gursky&page=1&f=Name&cr=2 |date=2 April 2012 }}, Guggenheim.org. Retrieved 15 March 2016.

Public collections

Gursky's work is held, among others, in the following public collections:

{{col-list|colwidth=30em|

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago{{Cite web|url=https://www.artic.edu/artworks/157154/shanghai|title=Shanghai|first=Andreas|last=Gursky|website=The Art Institute of Chicago|accessdate=10 September 2021}}
Berardo Collection Museum, Lisbon{{Cite web|url=https://pt.museuberardo.pt/colecao/artistas/225|title=Gursky | Museu Coleção Berardo | Lisboa|website=pt.museuberardo.pt|accessdate=10 September 2021}}
Castle of Rivoli, Rivoli, Turin{{Cite web|url=https://www.castellodirivoli.org/en/artista/andreas-gursky/|website=/castellodirivoli.org|accessdate=3 June 2022|title=Andreas Gursky }}
Centre Pompidou, Paris{{Cite web|url=https://www.centrepompidou.fr/fr/ressources/oeuvre/cL9RkM6|title=PCF, Paris|website=Centre Pompidou|accessdate=10 September 2021}}
Kunsthaus, Zürich[https://mplus.kunsthaus.ch/MpWeb-mpZuerichKunsthaus/v?mode=online&l=en#!m/Object/jxfVmSyaUzHR6uylD7a4bg/form/ObjCatalogueViewOnlineUser Andreas Gursky at the Kunsthaus Zürich (German)]
Kunstmuseum, Basel{{Cite web|url=http://sammlungonline.kunstmuseumbasel.ch/eMuseumPlus?service=direct/1/ResultListView/result.t2.artist_list.$TspTitleLink$0.link&sp=10&sp=Sartist&sp=SfilterDefinition&sp=0&sp=1&sp=1&sp=SsimpleList&sp=100&sp=Sdetail&sp=0&sp=F&sp=T&sp=109|title=Stale Session|website=sammlungonline.kunstmuseumbasel.ch|accessdate=10 September 2021}}
Kunstmuseum, Bonn{{Cite web|url=https://www.kunstmuseum-bonn.de/en/collections/photography/|title=Andreas Gursky at the Kunstmuseum, Bonn|accessdate=10 September 2021|archive-date=8 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171008211100/http://www.kunstmuseum-bonn.de/en/collections/photography/|url-status=dead}}
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf{{Cite web|url=https://www.kunstsammlung.de/en/collection/artists/andreas-gursky|title=Kunstsammlung NRW: Startseite|first=Kunstsammlung|last=Nordrhein-Westfalen|website=Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen|accessdate=10 September 2021}}
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles{{Cite web|url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/153142|title=Andreas Gursky | LACMA Collections|website=collections.lacma.org|accessdate=10 September 2021}}
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York[https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/267175 Andreas Gursky at the Metropolitan Museum of Art]
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee{{Cite web|url=http://collection.mam.org/details.php?id=12268|title=Milwaukee Art Museum | Collection|website=collection.mam.org|accessdate=10 September 2021}}
Museo Jumex, in Mexico City.{{Cite web|url=https://www.fundacionjumex.org/en/fundacion/coleccion/251-frankfurt|title=Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo|website=/fundacionjumex.org|accessdate=18 September 2022}}
Museum Ludwig, Cologne{{Cite web|url=https://www.kulturelles-erbe-koeln.de/documents/obj/05119590|title=Kulturelles Erbe Köln: Gursky, Andreas, Paris, Montparnasse|website=www.kulturelles-erbe-koeln.de|accessdate=10 September 2021}}
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago{{Cite web|url=https://mcachicago.org/collection/items/andreas-gursky/2702-Chicago-Board-of-Trade-II|title=MCA – Collection: Chicago Board of Trade II|website=mcachicago.org|accessdate=10 September 2021}}
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles{{Cite web|url=https://www.moca.org/artist/andreas-gursky|title=Andreas Gursky|website=www.moca.org|accessdate=10 September 2021}}
Museum of Modern Art, New York{{Cite web|url=https://www.moma.org/artists/7806|title=Andreas Gursky | MoMA|website=The Museum of Modern Art|accessdate=10 September 2021}}
National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/andreas-gursky|title=Andreas Gursky|website=www.nationalgalleries.org|accessdate=10 September 2021}}
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.38439.html?artobj_artistId=38439&pageNumber=1|title=Artist Info|website=www.nga.gov|accessdate=10 September 2021}}
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco{{Cite web|url=https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/andreas_gursky/|title=Gursky, Andreas|website=SFMOMA|accessdate=10 September 2021}}
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York{{Cite web|url=https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/andreas-gursky|title=Andreas Gursky born 1955|website=www.guggenheim.org|accessdate=3 June 2022}}
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam{{Cite web|url=https://www.stedelijk.nl/en/collection/90503-andreas-gursky-frankfurt |title=Andreas Gursky born 1955|website=www.stedelijk.nl|accessdate=18 September 2022}}
Tate Modern, London{{Cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/andreas-gursky-2349|title=Andreas Gursky born 1955|website=Tate|accessdate=10 September 2021}}

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References

External links

{{Official website|www.andreasgursky.com}} {{in lang|en|de}}
[http://www.boumbang.com/andreas-gursky/ The main works of Andreas Gursky]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20080506092821/http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/world_perfect Ralph Rugoff on Andreas Gursky]
[http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/gursky_andreas.html Andreas Gursky on Artcyclopedia]
{{MoMA artist|7806}}
[http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2001/gursky/ 2001 Andreas Gursky Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art].
[http://www.artinfo24.com/shop/artikel.php?id=96 A.Gursky – Solo Exhibition 2007 in Munich]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20080406162313/http://www.ekaterina-fondation.ru/eng/exhibitions/gursky.shtm Andreas Gursky's Personal Exhibition in the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation]
[http://vernissage.tv/blog/2007/10/23/andreas-gursky-kunstmuseum-basel/ Andreas Gursky, Kunstmuseum Basel] Video at VernissageTV 2007