Thomas Ruff (Arario Gallery, Seoul)
Publisher: Seoul: Arario, 2004
Edition: 1st Edition
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN: 8995465115
Condition: Near Fine / No dust jacket as issued
Item #: 101812
$55.50
Specifics
First edition, first printing. Hardcover. Photographically illustrated paper covered boards with title embossed with glossy varnish on cover and printed in black on spine, no dust jacket as issued. Photographs by Thomas Ruff. Essays (in English and Korean) by Valeria Liebermann and Yasmine Haeryung Yim. Includes exhibition history and selected bibliography. Designed by GNA R&D / Ki-song Hong. 126 pp., with approximately 80 plates (many full-bleed and two-page spreads) in color and black and white, beautifully printed in Korea by Moonsung Offset Printing Co. (the first 12 pages of text are printed in color on metallic silver textured art paper). 9-3/4 X 10 inches.
Published on the occasion of Ruff's first major exhibition in Korea, at Seoul's Arario Gallery in 2004.
Condition
Near Fine (light corner bumps; light surface wear, else Fine).
Description
This publication features nine of Ruff's major series to date, including Porträts/Portraits, Sterne/Stars, Zeitungsfotos/Newspaper Photographs, Plakate/Posters, Nudes, Herzog & de Meuron, l.m.v.d.r., Substrate/Substratum, and m.d.p.n.
From the publisher: "Under the assumption that 'photography can only capture the surface of things,' Ruff has been experimenting with the limits of the medium, creating sixteen series in the process. He explains that photography only pretends to show reality. When it comes to picture perfect, you recognize it, but at the same time, it is not. The works do not imply a direct interpretation of our reality but a manipulative 'second reality,' the image of an image, which opens up to different layers of reality throughout his artistic research. Even if the works do not appear to comment towards certain issues such as social politics or art history, working in series has the quality of reflecting matters of his generation. Since appearing on the international stage in the mid-80s with his seminal portrait series, Ruff has built a unique world of photography with themes such as nudes, Substrate, Sterne, architecture, newspaper photographs (Zeitungsfotos), and posters (Plakate).
The exhibition at Arario will not only display some of Ruff's acclaimed works such as Porträts, Sterne, and nudes, but also pieces from the recent series, m.d.p.n., where he photographed the fish market in Naples, which was designed by the Italian architect Luigi Cosenza, in 1929. With this recent project, Ruff has applied the same method that was used on the l.m.v.d.r series based on the architecture created by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. He employs digital technology to create a hybrid image of the market within its present context and archive images of the building within its original traditional urban context, using a sophisticated series of cross-references between the past and present. In m.d.p.n, he has generated a new and autonomous image of classical architecture. One of the main driving forces that allows for Ruff to be successful in so many genres of photography is his experimental spirit, which leads him into projects where he can deal with fresh ideas and new media as opposed to documentary where he has to focus on the real world."
