Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (gifted by the artist in 2004)
Private Collection, Germany
Van Ham Kunstauktionen, Cologne, December 1, 2021, lot 104
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Cologne, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Jahresgabe, December 1–23, 2004
Sarah Fakray, "Wolfgang Tillmans," Dazed & Confused, vol. 11, no. 87, July 2010, p. 31 (illustrated, erroneously dated, 2001)
German • 1968
Since the early 1990s, Wolfgang Tillmans has pushed the boundaries of the photographic medium. Challenging the indexical nature traditionally associated with photography, his abstract and representational photographic bodies of work each in their own way put forward the notion of the photograph as object—rather than as a record of reality. While achieving his breakthrough with portraits and lifestyle photographs, documenting celebrity culture as well as LGBTQ communities and club culture, since the turn of the millennium the German photographer has notably created abstract work such as the Freischwimmer series, which is made in the darkroom without a camera.
Seamlessly integrating genres, subject matters, techniques and exhibition strategies, Tillmans is known for photographs that pair playfulness and intimacy with a persistent questioning of dominant value and hierarchy structures of our image-saturated world. In 2000, Tillmans was the first photographer to receive the prestigious Turner Prize.
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