Andreas Gursky - Contemporary Art Part I New York Thursday, November 13, 2008 | Phillips

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  • Provenance


    Kunstwerke, Benefit Auction 2004, Berlin

  • Catalogue Essay

    Gursky also deploys this device of continuity and cropping in his photography, in other words in a medium that is the quintessential purveyor of cropping, arresting, and of infinite reproducibility. But unlike Goya, Gursky does not use the sequence as a narrative; in fact, his use of repetition accentuates the individual picture. According to Craig Ownes, the unsettling reduplication of something not quite identical in one single picture refers to the fact that what we see in photography does not simply depict a reality outside of the photograph. Using Walker Evans to illustrate his argument, Ownes observes that this kind of reduplication shows that what is represented cannot be situated in the space of the world, but only on the surface of the photograph. Gursky’s emphasis on the surface value of his photographic pictures might seem to invite that reading, especially since he mounts his pictures on Plexiglas using the Diasec process to create an insoluble bond between the laser print and its support. But his approach to repetition points in a different direction. The repetition of an almost identical scene in one picture and the fourfold repetition of the entire picture with variations offers the possibility of a constantly new scene that has its place in the world but has been expressively distilled in the photograph. The sequence of scenes in this case does not show any tendency towards the cinematic or visual continuity, despite the wide format and the reference to cropping or editing. The possibility of ever newer scenes repeated in variation accentuates the expressive impact of the individual picture. Gursky, like Goya, does not restrict himself to an intrinsically artistic reflection on the media. Rather his media investigations also serve the interests of the history picture or valid image whose formal composition tells of the mindset of the time in which it was created.                                                                                                                                                             B. Söntgen, “On the Edge of the Event: Echoes of the Nineteenth Century in Andreas Gursky’s Series F1 Pit Stop,” Andreas Gursky, Basel, 2008, p. 62

23

Säulenheilige

2004
Color coupler print Diasec mounted.
19 ½ x 57 ¾ in. (49.5 x 146 cm).
Signed, titled, dated “Andreas Gursky Säulenheilige 2004” and marked as unique on the reverse. 

Estimate
$200,000 - 300,000 

Contemporary Art Part I

13 Nov 2008, 7pm
New York