Provenance
Marian Goodman Gallery, New York
Private Collection
Literature
Schrimer/Mosel, Thomas Struth Museum Photographs, p. 101
Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, Thomas Struth - Pergamon Museum 1-6, n.p.
Schirmer/Mosel, Thomas Struth: Photographs 1978-2010, p. 211
Dallas Museum of Art, Thomas Struth 1977-2002, p. 52
Catalogue Essay
“I think what happened was that the artworks in my photographs became a little bit more contemporary and the visitors were pushed back into history, because once I’ve photographed them, the moment has of course already passed. It created this double reflection of consciousness.”
-Thomas Struth

Between 1989-1990 Thomas Struth created his first Museum series, a now iconic body of work. As a highly observant image maker, Struth captured visitors in dialogue with renowned works of art, artifacts, and architecture, at five of the most prestigious institutions across the globe; The Art Institute of Chicago; the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; The Louvre, Paris; The National Gallery, London; and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. In the mid-1990s, as a continuation of the series, Thomas Struth visited the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, but ultimately was dissatisfied with the pictures taken. He returned to the Pergamon a second time in 2001 and, in contrast with the first Museum pictures, positioned the visitors within the gallery to achieve the composition he initially envisioned. The result, as visible in Pergamon Museum IV, Berlin, is an exceptionally balanced interweaving of both visitor and object within the museum context, and the narrative that unfolds.

The present lot is one of only a few examples from Thomas Struth’s Museum series where he positioned the visitors, with the only other examples being the pictures taken at the Pantheon in Rome.
Artist Biography
Thomas Struth
Thomas Struth is a German photographer best known for his large-scale, classically composed photos of museum, cityscapes, and family portraits. Struth is a prominent member of the Düsseldorf School of Photography, the group of artists who studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the mid-1970s under influential photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher. Struth’s highly centralized, balanced photos incorporate cutting-edge photographic techniques and the tenets of classical composition to develop the documentarian aims of the Bechers.

Struth’s work has been widely celebrated by the international art community. He represented Germany at the 44th Venice Biennale in 1990 and has been the subject of major retrospectives including those at the Dallas Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Haus der Kunst, Munich. He lives and works in Berlin and New York.

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Δ8

Thomas Struth

Pergamon Museum IV, Berlin

2001
Chromogenic print, face-mounted to Plexiglas, in artist's frame
56 3/4 x 89 3/4 in. (144.1 x 228 cm)
Overall 62 2/3 x 92 3/8 in. (159.2 x 234.6 cm)
Signed in pencil, printed credit, title, date and number 2/10 on a label affixed to the reverse of the frame; numbered 2/10 in ink on the reverse of the frame.

Estimate
$70,000 - 90,000

Sold for $87,500

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Online Auction 22 - 30 April 2020

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Josephine Meckseper
Shelf #16
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000
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2
Candida Höfer
Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden I
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3
Thomas Schütte
Pantry
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4No Reserve
Oiva Toikka
"Lollipop"
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Natalie Frank
Study for the Stammerer
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6No Reserve
Heikki Orvola
Vase
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7
Vittorio Gregotti
Bookcase
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8
Thomas Struth
Pergamon Museum IV, Berlin
Estimate $70,000 - 90,000
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9
Giovanni Gariboldi
Illuminated bar cabinet
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10No Reserve
FINNISH
Rug
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11
Jeff Koons
Study for Vacuum Cleaner Sculpture
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12
Gabriel Orozco
Untitled
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Irving Penn
Spencer Tracy, New York, March 23
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14
William Kentridge
Untitled
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Matthew Brandt
713447Ful, Manhattan: 50 st.-Lexington Ave, 1910
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Jessica Jackson Hutchins
Red Wicker
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Horst P. Horst
Lisa, Black Hat & Gloves
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Tom Wesselmann
Belt Still Life
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Robert Gober
Hanging Man / Sleeping Man
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Henry Taylor
To Be Titled
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Richard Shaw
"Book with House of Camels"
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Huma Bhabha
Untitled
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23
Gerald Davis
Salva Denorum Experience
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24No Reserve
Werner West
Side chair, model no. W1
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25
Paavo Tynell
Rare ceiling light
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Habitat: Online Auction

Online Auction 22 - 30 April 2020

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Provenance

Literature

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Thomas Struth

Δ8

Thomas Struth

Pergamon Museum IV, Berlin

Habitat: Online Auction

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