Thomas Ruff

New York City

Working in distinct series since the late 1970s, Ruff has approached different genres of photography, including portraiture, architecture, astronomy, the nude, surveillance imagery, and reportage. Using a wide range of technological approaches, and often pushing the limits of photographic representation in the process, he has reinvented many historical conventions and expectations of the medium. The photograms and ma.r.s. works presented in this exhibition continue his interest in visual verisimilitude, with each series exploring the mutability and material presence of the photographic image.

The photograms depict abstract shapes, lines, and spirals in seemingly random formations with varying degrees of transparency and illumination. Their compositions are reminiscent of artistic experimentation with camera-less photography in the 1920s, where objects were placed directly on photo-sensitive paper and exposed to light, creating white or gray silhouettes wherever they made contact. Cherished in particular by Surrealists, such photograms were governed by unanticipated light effects, allowing for the element of chance in the final result. Yet both the objects and the light in Ruff’s “photograms” derive from a virtual darkroom built by a custom-made software program, giving the artist more control over the outcome.

David Zwirner

March 28 – April 27, 2013
525 West 19th Street
New York, NY 10011
USA

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