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Artist: 湯瑪斯·魯夫 Thomas Ruff (German, b. 1958)
Thomas Ruff 於1958年在德國巴登-符騰堡州出生,畢業於杜塞道夫美術學院(Düsseldorf Art Academy),師事著名的藝術家貝克夫婦(Bernd and Hilla Becher)。1980年代 Thomas Ruff 以一系列肖像作品《Porträts》獲得矚目。在這個系列中,他拍攝類似證件照的肖像,去除被拍攝者的人格特質線索,並將照片放大達兩公尺高,一覽無遺的人物臉孔細節在巨幅照片的呈現下全面包裏著觀者,引起攝影獨特的機械性美學思索,並成為當代攝影採用大尺寸彩色照片表現的先驅。
此後,Ruff 擴展了更多元的創作主題,包含建築、城市景觀、裸像及天體等,同時持續嘗試各種視覺語言,從運用網路數位圖片,到蒐集而來的實體老照片,探索著現代社會多樣化的影像觀。在《other Portraits》(1994-1995)系列中他使用1970年代德國警方合成罪犯人像的機器來合成出根本不存在的人物肖像,以此進行攝影與真實的討論,並反映現代社會的監控文化。數位時代展開後,網路圖像也成為 Ruff 的創作元素,例如他擷取網路上的新聞照片,壓縮並放大成佈滿有如馬賽克數位格狀畫面的《JPEG》系列(2009),對數位影像的物質性進行解構。
Thomas Ruff 的創作方法隨時代推進,視覺與感知在作品中交織,他的關注核心始終在於思考攝影的本質與可能性。
1958 年 生於德國哈默斯河畔采爾
1995 年 代表德國參加威尼斯雙年展
2001-2006 年 擔任杜塞道夫藝術學院教授
湯瑪斯.魯夫為今日最具影響力的攝影師之一,在杜塞道夫藝術學院的貝雪夫婦(Bernd and Hilla Becher)所創的貝雪學派(Becher school)中,是相當多產的成員。他重新定義攝影學中的概念可能性,同時捕捉並質問攝影作為視覺體驗之手法與工具的本質。
過去三十多年來,魯夫於其創作中分析人像、裸體、風景與建築攝影等諸多攝影類別的視覺表現力。他利用自己的類比及數位相片、電腦生成影像,及自科學資料庫、印刷媒體和網路上揀選的影像,進行這些探究。
八〇年代時,他幾乎只以類比相機創作,直到九〇年代數位影像科技更加盛行後,即愈發涉入數位視覺疆界的不同領域。魯夫的藝術創作出發點並非直接映照現實,而是攝影媒體那生成與操弄影像的性質。如此極端批判又具省思之攝影手法貫穿他所有作品,至今已衍生出31 個系列。
個展
2003年:英國泰德美術館·利物浦
2016年:加拿大安大略省安大略美術館,加拿大多倫多
2016年:國立現代美術館,日本東京; 日本金澤21世紀當代藝術博物館
2017年至2018年:倫敦白教堂畫廊。回顧展。
2017年至2018年:倫敦國家肖像畫廊。Porträts(肖像)精選作品。
群展
2015 杜塞爾多夫攝影群展,Ben Brown
PHOTOGRAPHY NOW,Ben Brown
2012 德國攝影群展 1960 - 2012,Ben Brown
2011 攝影郡展,Ben Brown
2006 湯瑪斯.魯夫,Ben Brown
2005 威尼斯雙年展
公共典藏
湯瑪斯.魯夫的作品保存在以下永久公共收藏中:
紐約市大都會藝術博物館:5版畫(截至2020年12月)
英國泰特:5張照片(截至2020年12月)
Thomas Ruff’s photography suggests the possibilities of his chosen medium, as he might use digital manipulation for one subject and antiquated darkroom techniques for another. Ruff works in series, creating defined bodies of work whose subjects include empty domestic interiors, appropriated interplanetary images captured by NASA, abstractions of modernist architecture, three–dimensional computer–generated Pop imagery, and obscured pornography. Ruff’s portraiture series of the early 1980s (his first to receive critical acclaim) featured groupings of large three-quarter portraits like so many passport photos; their enlarged scale offered a startling level of legibility. Though these, like many of his photographic series, seem to beg a sociocultural interpretation, perhaps the most constant feature in Ruff’s career is his disavowal of such a reading. Instead Ruff focuses on aesthetics and process, building an eclectic oeuvre not defined by genre, method, or theme, but rather by stark imagery, relative conceptual seriality of subject, and the clever subversion of the printed image.
Thomas Ruff was born in 1958 in Zell am Harmersbach, Germany. From 1977 to 1985, he attended Staatliche Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf. Recent solo exhibitions include “l.m.v.d.r.—thomas ruff,” Museum Haus Esters, Haus Lange, Germany (2000, traveled to Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin; and Galeria Estrany De La Mota, Barcelona); Chabot Museum, The Netherlands (2001); “Photographs 1979 to Present,” Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden–Baden, Germany (2001, traveled to Museet for Samtidskunst, Norway; Museum Folkwang, Germany; Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Artium Centro–Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo, Spain; Museu Serralves, Portugal; Tate Liverpool, England; and Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Poland, through 2004); “Identificaciones,” Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City (2002); Hans–Thoma–Museum, Germany (2003); Busan Metropolitan Art Museum, South Korea (2003); “Neue Arbeiten,” Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin (2004); “Les Oeuvres de la Collection Pierre Huber,” Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Switzerland (2004); Sprengel Museum, Germany (2007); “Jpegs,” Moderna Museet, Sweden (2007); Mücsarnok Kunsthalle, Budapest (2008); “Thomas Ruff. Schwarzwald. Landschaft,” Museum für Neue Kunst, Germany (2009); “Thomas Ruff. Stellar Landscapes,” Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Germany (2011); Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain (2011); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2011); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2012); “Lichten,” S.M.A.K., Belgium (2014, traveled to Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, Germany); and “Object Relations,” Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2016).
Ruff currently lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Solo exhibitions
2003: Tate Liverpool, Great Britain
2016: Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
2016: National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan;21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan[32][37]
2017–2018: Whitechapel Gallery, London. A solo retrospective exhibition.
2017–2018: National Portrait Gallery, London. Selected works from Porträts (Portraits).
Group exhibitions
2005: Venice Biennale
Collections
Ruff's work is held in the following permanent public collection:
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City: 5 prints (as of December 2020)
Tate, UK: 5 prints (as of December 2020)