Thomas Ruff

THOMAS RUFF "EZ14 KISS (FROM NUDES SERIES)", 2001

Thomas Ruff (b. 1958) is a contemporary German photographer and one of the most prominent members of the Düsseldorf School. 

While Ruff is not considered an appropriation artist, his practice often includes adopting and manipulating a wide variety of existing photographic images to critique their creation, function and their role in visual culture/society. 

With his "Nudes" series, he expanded on the central themes of his oeuvre by digitally altering erotic or pornographic images culled from the Internet. 

As his chosen images get stretched and blurred, the original tone/function of the picture is destabilized and softened in a painterly haze. Suddenly a slight manipulation and the categorization of the image is elevated. Ruff raises provocative questions about image classification, hierarchies with his Duchampian approach in the era of the Internet.  He literally and figuratively blurs the distinction between pornography and formalist nude photography. This particular image, from afar seems more like an abstraction rather than an erotic depiction. 

Today, examples of Thomas Ruff's work can be found in museum collections worldwide, including the Art Institute of Chicago; Dallas Museum of Art; Essl Museum, Berlin; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; The MET; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen; Guggenheim Museum, New York; and Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent, among others.  

Addition images available upon request.

Questions about this artwork? Contact us or call +1.416.704.1720

"EZ14 KISS (From Nudes)", 2001

Pigment print

Signed and numbered in pencil on verso

Edition of 50

14"H 9.5"W (image)

29.5"H 23.5"W (sheet)

Very good condition

Detailed condition report by request

Literature:
Thomas Ruff Fotografien 1979-heute, exhibition catalogue, Baden-Baden, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, 2001-2002, p. 238
M. Winzen, Thomas Ruff: 1979 to the Present, New York 2003 
M. Houellebecq, Thomas Ruff Nudes, New York 2003 
Thomas Ruff, exhibition catalogue, Chungnam, Arario Gallery, 2004

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