ANDREAS GURSKY
Overview
A solo exhibition of Andreas Gursky (1955-), Germany’s leading contemporary photographer, is to be held for the first time in Japan at the National Art Center Tokyo, followed by an exhibition at The National Museum of Art in Osaka. With roots in traditional German photography, Gursky has received world wide attention for his unique visual representation of modern day society.
The exhibition will comprise approximately 65 photographs selected by the artist, ranging from early works from the 1980’s to such masterpieces as 99 Cent (1999), Rhine II (1999), F1 Pit Stop IV (2007), Pyongyang I (2007), Tokyo Stock Exchange (1990) and Kamiokande (2007) – both taken in Japan – and his latest work Qatar (2012). The most recent series of works – ’Ocean’ (2010) produced with the aid of satellite imagery and ’Bangkok’ (2011), which contemplates the surface of a river, display increasingly conceptual concerns where the artist is more akin to a painter using photographs.
Casting aside a chronological display, the exhibition will instead uniquely aim to show the entire body of work as a single unified entity with both old and new and small and large formats displayed side by side.
| Period | Wednesday, July 3 - Monday, September 16, 2013 Closed on Tuesdays |
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| Opening hours | 10:00 - 18:00 (10:00 - 20:00 on Fridays) ＊Last entry 30 minutes before closing |
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| Venue | The National Art Center, Tokyo (Kokuritsu-Shin-Bijutsukan), Special Exhibition Gallery 1E 7-22-2 Roppongi Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan |
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| Organized by | The National Art Center, Tokyo, The Yomiuri Shimbun, TBS, TOKYO FM | ||||||
| With the support of | Embassy of Germany in Japan, Goethe Institut, InterFM, | ||||||
| With the sponsorship of | Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd., | ||||||
| With the special cooperation of | Pia. | ||||||
| With the cooperation of | All Nippon Airways Co., Ltd., Sprüth Magers Berlin London | ||||||
| Admission(tax included) |
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| General Inquiries | 03-5777-8600 (Hello Dial) | ||||||
Introduction of Andreas Gursky
A former student of the world-renowned Becher School of Photography, Düsseldorf, Germany
Andreas Gursky was born in 1955 in the former East German city of Leipzig, but the family moved to West Germany in the same year. From 1977 to 1980, he attended the Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen, where he studied visual communication under Otto Steinert and Michael Schmidt. From 1980 to 1987, he studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Bernd and Hilla Becher, master of photography. Gursky came to prominence as a member of the Becher School, which was formed by Becher’s students, including Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Thomas Ruff and Thomas Struth. Since 2010, Gursky teaches a free art course at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.
Gursky’s photographs captivate museums around the world
Gursky acquired worldwide fame with his major solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, in 2001. In November 2011, he made the headlines when Rhine II, one of his masterpieces, was sold for close to US$ 4,330,000 at Christie’s, New York. Gursky’s photographs are in the collections of major art museums around the world, including Centre Pompidou (Paris), Tate (London), MoMA (New York) and in numerous important private collections.