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Lot Essay
Other works from this edition are in the collection of Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg; Tate Modern, London and Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
'I stand at a distance, like a person who comes from another world. I just record what I see'
(A. Gursky, quoted in interview with C. Squiers, 'Concrete Reality', Ruhr Works, September 1988, p. 29).
'Behind Gursky's taste for the imposing clarity of unbroken parallel forms spanning a slender rectangle lies a rich inheritance of reductive aesthetics, from Friedrich to Newman to Richter to Donald Judd'
(P. Galassi, 'Gursky's World', in Andreas Gursky, ext. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2001, p. 35).
Presented on a monumental scale, Andreas Gursky's Bundestag, 1998 captures a densely packed scene of the newly-built German Parliament building from a God-like vantage point, offering a view into the political apparatus from an impossible aerial perspective. Extending over two metres in height, the crystallised detail of Bundestag summarizes and intensifies our reality, compelling the viewer to scrutinise every feature in this hive of activity. Like a Mondrian painting, Gursky imbues balance, harmony, and remarkable compositional order to Bundestag, through the carefully arranged gridded architecture of the windows. The tall, rectilinear composition divides itself; each apparent window presents a harmonious ordered vision of the heated debate and Parliamentary activity within. Set apart from the scene by the framed panes, the subtle bow of the scaffolding delineates the whole composition, inviting the viewer into an otherwise inaccessible world through the windows. A photograph about reality, reflection and counter-reflection, the uppermost band mirroring the reflection of activity below, offering wholly different, omnipotent view for our contemplation, calling to question what is real and what is not. A particularly complex composition full of rich detail, another version of Bundestag is held in the Tate Gallery, London, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg and Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
Enhanced by his compositional structure, the camera's high vantage point creates a sense of separation and alienation, what has been referred to as Gursky's 'God-like view'. Gursky's works reorder the world according to a delicately balanced tension between hyper-clarity and formal nature. As Gursky once explained, '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', partially reproduced at www.postmedia.net, [accessed 14 September, 2013]).
Far from being a single picture, Gursky has in fact combined several different layers through the digital design of the image which is a construction of the numerous pictures that once would have defined the final shot. Offering us a privileged view from his omniscient vantage point, numerous different narratives unfold in the grand spectacle. Carefully orchestrating his composition, Gursky meticulously alters various parts of the picture, contrasting reflections of the trees outside with deflected interior images from within. Rigorously ordering his composition as if a carefully planned painting, Gursky splits the composition into four layers: the convening crowd of bureaucrats at its heart, encircled by a ring of seating, rippling out to the upper echelons of theatre-style balconies. The unique perspective conveys an overarching sense of order, distilling the individual elements of chaos into an overall sensation of clarity.
This underlying formal regularity stems from the artist's deep appreciation of art historical narratives and photographic reference. Informed by the careful ordering of Minimalism, Gursky's practice is a conceptual vision executed with Judd-like economy. As Peter Galassi suggests, 'behind Gursky's taste for the imposing clarity of unbroken parallel forms spanning a slender rectangle lies a rich inheritance of reductive aesthetics, from Friedrich to Newman to Richter to Donald Judd' (P. Galassi, 'Gursky's World', in Andreas Gursky, ext. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2001, p. 35).
'I stand at a distance, like a person who comes from another world. I just record what I see'
(A. Gursky, quoted in interview with C. Squiers, 'Concrete Reality', Ruhr Works, September 1988, p. 29).
'Behind Gursky's taste for the imposing clarity of unbroken parallel forms spanning a slender rectangle lies a rich inheritance of reductive aesthetics, from Friedrich to Newman to Richter to Donald Judd'
(P. Galassi, 'Gursky's World', in Andreas Gursky, ext. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2001, p. 35).
Presented on a monumental scale, Andreas Gursky's Bundestag, 1998 captures a densely packed scene of the newly-built German Parliament building from a God-like vantage point, offering a view into the political apparatus from an impossible aerial perspective. Extending over two metres in height, the crystallised detail of Bundestag summarizes and intensifies our reality, compelling the viewer to scrutinise every feature in this hive of activity. Like a Mondrian painting, Gursky imbues balance, harmony, and remarkable compositional order to Bundestag, through the carefully arranged gridded architecture of the windows. The tall, rectilinear composition divides itself; each apparent window presents a harmonious ordered vision of the heated debate and Parliamentary activity within. Set apart from the scene by the framed panes, the subtle bow of the scaffolding delineates the whole composition, inviting the viewer into an otherwise inaccessible world through the windows. A photograph about reality, reflection and counter-reflection, the uppermost band mirroring the reflection of activity below, offering wholly different, omnipotent view for our contemplation, calling to question what is real and what is not. A particularly complex composition full of rich detail, another version of Bundestag is held in the Tate Gallery, London, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg and Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
Enhanced by his compositional structure, the camera's high vantage point creates a sense of separation and alienation, what has been referred to as Gursky's 'God-like view'. Gursky's works reorder the world according to a delicately balanced tension between hyper-clarity and formal nature. As Gursky once explained, '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', partially reproduced at www.postmedia.net, [accessed 14 September, 2013]).
Far from being a single picture, Gursky has in fact combined several different layers through the digital design of the image which is a construction of the numerous pictures that once would have defined the final shot. Offering us a privileged view from his omniscient vantage point, numerous different narratives unfold in the grand spectacle. Carefully orchestrating his composition, Gursky meticulously alters various parts of the picture, contrasting reflections of the trees outside with deflected interior images from within. Rigorously ordering his composition as if a carefully planned painting, Gursky splits the composition into four layers: the convening crowd of bureaucrats at its heart, encircled by a ring of seating, rippling out to the upper echelons of theatre-style balconies. The unique perspective conveys an overarching sense of order, distilling the individual elements of chaos into an overall sensation of clarity.
This underlying formal regularity stems from the artist's deep appreciation of art historical narratives and photographic reference. Informed by the careful ordering of Minimalism, Gursky's practice is a conceptual vision executed with Judd-like economy. As Peter Galassi suggests, 'behind Gursky's taste for the imposing clarity of unbroken parallel forms spanning a slender rectangle lies a rich inheritance of reductive aesthetics, from Friedrich to Newman to Richter to Donald Judd' (P. Galassi, 'Gursky's World', in Andreas Gursky, ext. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2001, p. 35).