Thomas Ruff - Contemporary Art Part II New York Friday, May 13, 2011 | Phillips

Create your first list.

Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.

  • Provenance

    Mai 36 Galerie, Zürich; Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf, Frankfurt

  • Literature

    M. Winzen (ed.), Thomas Ruff: 1979 to the Present, Cologne 2001, p. 240 (illustrated); M. Houellebecq, Thomas Ruff Nudes, New York 2003, pp. 50-51 (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    Around 1998 Thomas Ruff began to work on nude photography and also began experimenting with computer-generated, abstract pictures made of pixels. Through his Internet research into the genre of nude photography, he came cross the field of pornography. Due to the poor resolution (72 dpi) of these pictures on the World Wide Web, their pixel structure resembled the one he had been experimenting with. He decided to apply the same technique to the Internet pictures, processing them so that the pixel structure was only just barely visible. He used fuzziness and other blurring techniques, occasionally modifying the coloring and removing intrusive details. The selection of source pictures was based on such considerations as composition, lighting, coloring, or presentation. In the nudes Thomas Ruff wanted to cover the wide range of sexual fantasies and practices currently on offer on the Internet by professionals and amateurs, under categories like Babes, Blonde, Cheerleader, Gay, Group, Anal, Fetish, Nylon, Bondage, or Hardcore.

    (M. Winzen, Thomas Ruff: 1979 to the Present, Cologne 2001, p. 236)

145

Nudes fee 19

2001
Chromogenic print mounted on Plexiglas in artist's wood frame.
Frame: 44 1/8 x 55 7/8 in. (112.1 x 141.9 cm.)
Signed and dated "Th Ruff 2001" and numbered of five on the reverse of the backing board. This work is from an edition of five plus two artist's proofs.

Estimate
$50,000 - 70,000 

Contemporary Art Part II

13 May 2011
New York