Born in 1954 in Gedern (DE)
Lives and works in Düsseldorf (DE)
1989
Colour photograph, cibachrome
98,5 x 142 cm
Year of Purchase: 1990
This series, embarked upon in 1989, is dedicated to museum spaces, and pursues a typological investigation of the cultural and social behaviour patterns hallmarking Thomas Struth’s work. With the same analytical approach as for his earlier works, these tight shots make no concessions to the seduction of architectural space, but are focused on the structure of the physical and mental space in which spectators stroll about. Unlike the streets and portraits, however, which keep the distance and privacy of the subject incorporated in the concavity of the small format of the black and white print, the large format cibachromes depicting museums create a tautological connection, a dialectic tension, between the content, the form and the presentation of the works in the real and photographed space, thus introducing a line of thinking about the complexity and significance of perception. This critical dimension already present in earlier works here leaves no way out for the viewer, because he has become the subject on display, beheld and beholding, signified and signifier, all at once. As for the artist, he merely observes and records, by his withdrawal obliging the spectator to represent himself through the other and contemplate the way in which his private individuality complies with codified public places. Over and above anecdote, Struth shows the museum as a place of cultural consumption and representation, and proposes a symbolic, subjective but conscious experience of social behavioural patterns. In describing the complexity of the real underlined by serial recording and installation, Struth’s photographs simply capture the lifestyles of his day and age, focusing on their inscription in the past. Representation is only possible within this crack in perception.
Maïté Vissault