19.01.08 | 28.04.08

Audience 08 Florence 2004 Audience 09 Florence 2004 VIA GIOVANNI TAPPIA Naples 1989 VICO DEI MONTI Naples 1988 Paradise 1 (Pilgrim Sands) 1998 Via Del Parco Margherita, Naples 1988 Via Della Sanità Naples 1988 Corso Vittorio Emanuele Neapel 1989 Via Vannella Gaetani Naples 1988 Via Giuseppe Verdi Milan 1992 Via Emilio Cornalia (Mit Hochhaus) Milan 1992 The Consolandi Family Milan 1996 New York 2001 The Lingwood & Hamlyn Family London 2001 The Richter Family 1 Köln 2002 The Falletti Family Florence 2005 The Okutsu Family In Western Room Yamaguchi 1996 The Ayvar Family Lima, S.M.P / Peru 2005 Veddeler Brückenstrasse Hamburg 1986 Via Monte Cardonet Rome 1988 Via Guglielmo (Mit Lkw) Rome 1988 Via San Giovanni A Mare Neaples 1988 Le Lignon (Horizontal) Geneve 1989 Via Emilio Cornalia Milan 1992 Piazza Virgilio Mailand 1998 Friedrich-Engels-Strasse Leverkusen 1980 Kanzlerstrasse 1, Duisburg 1989 Leipziger Strasse Essen 1989 Kunsthistorisches Museum 3 Wien 1989 Louvre 4 Paris 1989 Art Institute Of Chicago 1 Chicago 1990 Museo Del Prado 8-1 Madrid 2005 Museo Del Prado 8-2 Madrid 2005 Museo Del Prado 8-3 Madrid 2005 Museo Del Prado 8-4 Madrid 2005 Museo Del Prado 8-5 Madrid 2005 Paradise 9 1999 Paradise 22 2001 Stanze Di Raffaello 2 Rome 1990 Galleria Dell’ Accademia 1 Venice 1992 Cerro Morro Solar Lima / Peru 2003 Pasaje Gaspar Lima / Peru 2003 Calle Wakulski Lima / Peru 2003 Plaza Elguera Lima / Peru 2003 Pasaje Sta. Rosa Lima / Peru 2003 Jiron Cailloma Lima / Peru 2003 Drammen 1 Drammen/ Oslo 2001 Manzhouli Inner Mongolia, China 2002 Las Vegas 1 Las Vegas, Nevada 1999 Pudong Shanghai 1999 Chong Wen Meng Dong Beijing 1996 Hazienda Rio Palpa Palpa / Peru 2003

Thomas Struth

Paradise 30

2005

Courtesy :

Struth’s interest in nature as an independent photographic theme emerged for the first time in the Garden am Lindberg series, commissioned in 1991 by a private clinic at Wintherthur, in Switzerland, to be exhibited in the rooms of the patients. Taken in the park that surrounds the clinic, the series consists of photographs on a small scale and intimate in character of flowers and gardens taken with the same penetrating power of observation as the portraits. In them we sense the curiosity to penetrate a strange and surprising world, yet one that is familiar and domestic. A world essentially only domesticated by man but substantially "other", which in the following series Paradise (1998-2001) is revealed in all its obscure and elusive fascination as the original antagonist of man in the struggle for survival, before the progress of technology changed the nature of the relationship. The title of the series recalls the myth of the Garden of Eden, in which man never needed to work or produce and therefore to change nature to live: a condition in marked contrast with the drama of history and, above all, with contemporary reality. Set in the rain forests, deserts and jungles of Japan, Australia, China, America and Europe, these large-format photographs represent segments of luxuriant, unspoilt vegetation covering the surfaces of the prints without a break, evoking potentially endless and absolute space. The inexhaustible range of greens gives the images an almost abstract pictorial quality, a quality that marks a clear evolution compared with the "sculptural" character of the photographs from the early eighties, still influenced by the work of the Bechers and authors like Karl Blossfeldt [1865 –1932]. The scarcity of any socio-cultural element endows the image with a meditative quality and suspends the reflection of the viewer in an ahistorical present. The dense vegetation, in which the ramifications make it impossible to isolate individual details, creates a nearly impenetrable place, before which humanity, suddenly small and deprived of his spatio-temporal coordinates, feels a slight sense of bewilderment.
 

Paradise 1 (Pilgrim Sands)

1998

Paradise 9

1999

Paradise 22

2001

Geldern (Basso Reno) 1954
Born at Geldern in 1954, Thomas Struth began his artistic training by studying painting under Peter Kleemann and Gerhard Richter at the Kunstakademie of Düsseldorf ...
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Thomas Struth. New pictures from paradise
Ingo Hartmann
Hans Rudolf Reust
GERMANY Munchen - 2002
Schirmer/Mosel

INDEX

Bibliographical references

BOOKSHOP

Thomas Struth. New pictures from paradise
Ingo Hartmann
Hans Rudolf Reust
GERMANY Munchen - 2002
Schirmer/Mosel