Synopsis
Thomas Struth's Museum Photographs series, first published in 1993, is now available in a new edition enlarged by recent photographs. It presents large- format color photos taken between 1989 and 2002 in major museums across the world. The subject of these pictures is art—to be more painting—and how it is presented and perceived in the context of the museum architecture. With their interrelated levels of perception, time, and subject matter, these photos prompt the viewer to investigate the very act of seeing and perceiving.The revised and enlarged second edition of the book adds 26 new pictures, some of them taken in museums, whereas others show the works at their original location in Venetian churches or the Vatican. Three scholarly essays by renowned art historians discuss the complex historical and socio-cultural questions that arise when viewing Struth's Museum Photographs.
Reviews
German photographer Struth is among the artists from the celebrated D sseldorf School who studied under conceptualists Bernd and Hilla Becher in the 1970s and 1980s. Their rigid, deadpan style of uniform picture making proved a rich starting point, and in maturity Struth's work excavates the nature of photography itself. Three new titles encapsulate the work of this important midcareer artist. Portraits, published on the occasion of Struth's one-man exhibition at the Sprengel Museum in Hanover, contains the artist's psychologically loaded frontal images of his human subjects. In the words of curator Weski, Struth's camera is applied like "a two-way mirror," reflecting both the photographer and his view of the subject with us, the viewer, as the third partner. Still presents an overview of the artist's work, including his flower pieces, some portraiture, and his early street photos. Dubbed "subconscious places" by the photographer, the city roads, with their austerity and vanishing point perspective, convey multiple layers of history as well as the "photographic moment." Museum Photographs, with its images of people viewing works of art in museums around the world, explores photography's rivalry with painting as well as issues like how art changes by being in a museum, how it is displayed, and how we look at it. Including an outstanding essay by Belting, this slim, oversized book contains 17 large plates of the enormous photographs. In spite of its usefulness in bringing these works together and the high quality of the reproductions, this publication underscores an inherent difficulty in publishing Struth's photography: because it is so much about photography itself, i.e., the photograph on the wall, this "translation" into book form strips away some meaning and a large portion of the effect. Both Museum Photographs and Portraits are recommended for larger art and photography collections, the former for its superior essay and the latter for its comprehensive look at this central series. For its broad overview, Still is highly recommended for all libraries. Doug McClemont, New York
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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