Surfaces, Depths
Thomas Ruff
Verlag für moderne Kunst
German, English
Harcover
288 pages
234 x 310 mm
2009
ISBN 9783941185500
Surfaces, Depths is a representative selection of Thomas Ruff’s works, over a period that already spans about 25 years, with projects ranging from portraits and interiors to telescope and space probe pictures and ‘nightsight’ photography. Ruff incorporates an extremely wide range of everyday subjects into his experiments–people, architecture, planets, the Internet–and subjects them to all forms of camera technology, so that his work often seems to embody the history of the art as it develops. Ruff has a particular fascination with photographic techniques that appear to erase or leave out the artist’s hand, techniques often designed for military or scientific purposes. In a recent series titled Zycles, for example, Ruff constructs his images with the help of mathematical formulas and computer technology, twisting two-dimensional surfaces into the three-dimensional space of vector graphics. Surfaces and Depths focuses on ten of Ruff’s total of 18 projects to address this particular ongoing preoccupation with artistic detachment, and the polarities of surface and depth vision in the construction of images. In doing so, it makes the broadest assessment to date of the oeuvre of this tireless innovator.
(source: https://www.mai36.com/publications/surfaces-depths-oberflaechen-tiefen)
About the Artist
Thomas Ruff is a contemporary German photographer and prominent member of the Düsseldorf School. His broad oeuvre incorporates images of domestic interiors, austere portraits, blurred pornography, photograms, and found JPEGs which intend to spur the imagination rather than capture reality.
About the Publisher
Verlag für moderne Kunst publishes carefully designed art books and develop exceptional products. They collaborate with artists from all fields of contemporary art, designing books and goods cherished by cosmopolitans around the globe. In Vienna, they also operate a boutique store as a special place for lovers of beautiful things to encounter exquisite editions and an assortment of handpicked items.
vfmk.org
