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Lot Essay
'The camera's enormous distance from these figures means they become de-individualized... So I am never interested in the individual but in the human species and its environment'
(A. Gursky, quoted in V. Gomer, 'I generally Let Things Develop Slowly', at (www.postmedia.net) [10/09/12]).
Executed in 2008, Andreas Gursky's Jumeirah Palm is an outstanding example of his brilliantly composed photography. Alternating between minute detail and geometric abstraction, one can either see distinct abstract bands of deep blues and sand white or ten rows of meticulously detailed sea front luxury villas stretching out across the image. Gursky takes as his subject the protruding landmasses which constitute the branches of the artificial Jumeirah Palm that extends into the Persian Gulf off the coast of Dubai; a peninsula that was begun in 2001 and has been dubbed the eighth wonder of the world. Built by man purely for the pleasure of wealthy individuals, it stands as a remarkable feat of engineering and a triumph over nature unlike anything done before. Indeed, just as man acts as the supreme creator with Jumeirah Palm, so too does Gursky with the creation of this image. Rather than capturing the picture from a specific vantage point, Gursky has digitised the numerous photographs that he has taken of the scene, amalgamating them to create this image which is almost a 'Platonic' ideal of the form. Seen through his omniscient vantage point, the photo is shown from so high above that it might be the perspective of a divine creator who has shaped a world that seems ordered and accessible, giving viewers the opportunity to discern the scene from the perfect point that is normally denied to us.
Gursky accentuates the painterly quality of his photographed surface by subdividing it horizontally. Whether his subject matter is the world of fashion, as in the Dior Homme (2004) or the bands of stones on the Giza Pyramid, in Cheops (2005), it imposes a pattern on the things and spaces he chooses to shoot. This reflects Gursky's interest in photography as a medium that has the potential for abstraction in much the same way as painting. Reminiscent of Barnett Newman's zip canvases, in which Newman strove to discover the abstract sublime, Gursky's heroic scaled work, standing over two and a half metre in height and almost two metres in width offers his own sublime as it borders between figuration and abstraction. The large format of Jumeirah Palm engenders a physical experience, filling viewers' entire perspective when stepping close to the picture so that they become engulfed in the explosion of detail and colour.
(A. Gursky, quoted in V. Gomer, 'I generally Let Things Develop Slowly', at (www.postmedia.net) [10/09/12]).
Executed in 2008, Andreas Gursky's Jumeirah Palm is an outstanding example of his brilliantly composed photography. Alternating between minute detail and geometric abstraction, one can either see distinct abstract bands of deep blues and sand white or ten rows of meticulously detailed sea front luxury villas stretching out across the image. Gursky takes as his subject the protruding landmasses which constitute the branches of the artificial Jumeirah Palm that extends into the Persian Gulf off the coast of Dubai; a peninsula that was begun in 2001 and has been dubbed the eighth wonder of the world. Built by man purely for the pleasure of wealthy individuals, it stands as a remarkable feat of engineering and a triumph over nature unlike anything done before. Indeed, just as man acts as the supreme creator with Jumeirah Palm, so too does Gursky with the creation of this image. Rather than capturing the picture from a specific vantage point, Gursky has digitised the numerous photographs that he has taken of the scene, amalgamating them to create this image which is almost a 'Platonic' ideal of the form. Seen through his omniscient vantage point, the photo is shown from so high above that it might be the perspective of a divine creator who has shaped a world that seems ordered and accessible, giving viewers the opportunity to discern the scene from the perfect point that is normally denied to us.
Gursky accentuates the painterly quality of his photographed surface by subdividing it horizontally. Whether his subject matter is the world of fashion, as in the Dior Homme (2004) or the bands of stones on the Giza Pyramid, in Cheops (2005), it imposes a pattern on the things and spaces he chooses to shoot. This reflects Gursky's interest in photography as a medium that has the potential for abstraction in much the same way as painting. Reminiscent of Barnett Newman's zip canvases, in which Newman strove to discover the abstract sublime, Gursky's heroic scaled work, standing over two and a half metre in height and almost two metres in width offers his own sublime as it borders between figuration and abstraction. The large format of Jumeirah Palm engenders a physical experience, filling viewers' entire perspective when stepping close to the picture so that they become engulfed in the explosion of detail and colour.