Lot 25 | Andreas Gursky | Untitled

GURSKY, ANDREAS
1955 Leipzig

Title: Untitled.
Date: 1985.
Technique: C-print on Kodak.
Depiction Size: 20,5 x 26,5cm.
Sheet Size: 24 x 30cm.
Notation: Signed and dated (verso).
Frame: Framed.


Provenance:
- Kasper König Collection, Berlin (directly from artist)

Becher School
Andreas Gursky's photograph shows the Ratinger Tor in Düsseldorf, a classicist building that is currently being renovated by workers. The symmetrical composition and the attention to detail with which architectural elements such as the columns and the cornice are captured are reminiscent of the precise and objective architectural photographs of the Becher School. Like Bernd and Hilla Becher, Gursky not only documents a building here, but also the process of preserving and changing urban structures. The calm, almost static scene refers to the tradition of the Düsseldorf School of capturing architecture as a testimony to industrial and urban history.

König and Gursky
Andreas Gursky, a master student of Bernd and Hilla Becher, studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy under Kasper König, among others, so that the two have a long-standing relationship of collaboration and mutual admiration. König recognised the potential of Gursky's work early on and acquired this photograph from Gursky when he was still a student. He significantly promoted the photographer's career through exhibitions and publications. In 1995, König showed the artist's colour photographs at Portikus in Frankfurt am Main. Their collaboration helped to establish Gursky as one of the most important contemporary photographers, whose works often operate at the interface between documentation and art.