Thomas Ruff
Thomas Ruff (*1958 in Zell am Harmersbach, Germany) is an established international figure in the field of photographic art. Starting out as one of the first representatives of Bernd and Hilla Becher’s class at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art in the 1980s, his works are now a fixture in any established photography collection. Serial work has accompanied his œuvre for over 40 years. Through his technical inventiveness, he repeatedly succeeds in placing the medium itself in new contexts and highlighting the discrepancy between the latest technology and old habits of perception. While in the beginning his photographic works typically consisted of series of purely objective, impartial depictions, such as portraits, buildings, interiors, his work has in the course of time become more and more concerned with the medium of photography itself and, by the same token, distanced itself more and more from the classical themes of photography. Since the late 1990s, Thomas Ruff has been increasingly preoccupied with the new possibilities afforded by digital photography, not least with the technical manipulability of images disseminated through the worldwide mass medium of the Internet with its inexhaustible source of material.
The works by Thomas Ruff are part of numerous international collections, such as Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; The Broad, Los Angeles; Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Rivoli; Centre Pompidou, Paris; corporate collection DZ BANK, Frankfurt; Fondation Cartier, Paris; Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; Julia Stoschek Foundation Düsseldorf, Dusseldorf; K20/K21 – Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, Düsseldorf; Kunstmuseum Basel; mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna; The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; PinchukArtCentre Kiew, Ukraine; Schaulager Basel; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City; Sprengel Museum, Hannover; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent; Tate, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
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Breaking the walls, Dino appears. Curated by Leiko Ikemura
Lina Bo Bardi, Martin Creed, Rudolf Finisterre, Günther Förg, Dan Graham, Leiko Ikemura, Tomie Ohtake, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Schütte, Álvaro Siza, Thomas Struth, Philipp von Matt, Chen Wei 10 May - 15 August 2025'Breaking the walls, Dino appears', curated by Leiko Ikemura, is a theme-based interdisciplinary exhibition that brings together visual artists and architects who find or create a poetic approach to the...Read more -
Poetics of Nature
Stephan Balkenhol, Leiko Ikemura, Maximilian Rödel, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, Thu Van Tran 28 February - 3 May 2025We are pleased to announce the group exhibition “Poetics of Nature”. This themed exhibition focuses on various work cycles by Stephan Balkenhol, Leiko Ikemura, Maximilian Rödel, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth...Read more -
Thomas Ruff
new work 12 April - 1 June 2024The exhibition “new work” by Thomas Ruff at Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle showcases the artist’s newest series “d.o.pe.” and “untitled#”. Created over the past two years, both series offer abstract pictorial...Read more -
Focus on Photography
2 July - 4 September 2021Düsseldorf photographic art has been an essential part of the gallery's program for more than 40 years. This exhibition focuses on different work cycles by Elger Esser, Candida Höfer, Thomas...Read more -
Portraits
4 March - 26 June 2021Devoted entirely to the portrait, this exhibition gathers a wide variety of creative expressions offered in this genre. To this day, the portrait has remained one of the most important,...Read more -
Accrochage
13 August - 4 September 2020 -
Thomas Ruff
Serien 5 April - 1 June 2019Thomas Ruff is renowned for his conceptual approach. In the late 1970s he helped shape the paradigm shift from documentary to art photography and continues to enrich the genre with...Read more -
Stillleben
30 November 2018 - 2 February 2019The final exhibition in the gallery’s fiftieth-anniversary year, bringing together various works of artists it represents, is dedicated to the still life. Unmoving or inanimate objects have been the subject...Read more -
Thomas Ruff
neg◊lapresmidi 9 February - 7 April 2018The final exhibition in the gallery’s fiftieth-anniversary year, bringing together various works of artists it represents, is dedicated to the still life. Unmoving or inanimate objects have been the subject of art since the genesis of painting, long before nature morte was elevated to its own painterly discipline in the seventeenth century. But how does the still life fare today in contemporary art? Is transience still a significant issue?Read more
Helene Appel applies paint directly to the untreated canvas, whose coarse structure serves as the organized backdrop of her still lifes. Grains of rice, slabs of meat, refuse, or other everyday things are brought to the canvas in a trompe l’oeil style. The objects conjure a virtually haptic effect, which in turn is transformed into abstraction due to the objects’ arrangement and the interplay of the canvas’s linear texture.
As a photographer, Candida Höfer’s name is closely associated with the portrayal of deserted interiors whose aura has a hypnotic effect on the viewer. Her lesser-known still lifes, however, use a narrative and poetic language to document situations from everyday life, which in these works transforms into seemingly methodically composed color photographs.
Karin Kneffel is a virtuosic painter of realistic scenes. Her works conflate meticulous research with the imaginary. She investigates her subjects layer by layer, all while being just as interested in the stages of change as in playing with the effects of painting, the textures, the colors, and the illusionistic appearance. Veristic attention to detail in her still lifes lets us look at the day-to-day as if we beheld it for the first time.
Thomas Struth’s Rotfuchs from his series of dead animals shows us a fox that died of natural causes and, like the other animals in this series, was examined professionally for its species’ protection. Still and dignified, the cadaver lies before us as if it had just taken its last breath. The beauty of nature, paired with its finitude, here has become a haunting memento mori.
Jeff Wall directs the viewer’s gaze into the window of a flower shop without flowers. Empty vases and flowerpots sit behind the window; only a tulle-like flower construction and brittle twigs point to its function. Two cartons, one reading, “18 candelite cardette,” hint at their possible contents: material needed for flower arrangements. One isn’t quite sure if this is a staged or an everyday and therefore random situation. The viewers invariably start analyzing details and developing their own story.
Along with numerous other works, this exhibition marks the first time that photograms by the artists Susan Weil and Thu-Van Tran are shown. They offer a sneak peek of the gallery’s program next year. But first, visitors are invited to linger and find tranquility in pondering the question mentioned at the beginning, and to discover the diversity of the contemporary still life. -
Candida Höfer, Thomas Struth, Thomas Ruff
6 April - 27 May 2017Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle once again presents works from recent series by Candida Höfer, Thomas Ruff, and Thomas Struth. They studied together under Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf...Read more -
Jānis Avotiņš, Anders Clausen, Slawomir Elsner, Rodney Graham, Thomas Helbig, Goshka Macuga, Jan Merta, Andrew Palmer, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, Chen Wei, Thomas Zipp 1 - 30 July 2016
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Art Cologne 2024
7 - 10 November 2024Description Additional FieldRead more -
Art Basel 2024
13 - 16 June 2024Helene Appel, Stephan Balkenhol, David Claerbout, Martin Creed, Elger Esser, Candida Höfer, Leiko Ikemura, Karin Kneffel, Daniel Knorr, Goshka Macuga, Maximilian Rödel, Anri Sala, Elif...Read more -
Art Cologne 2023
16 - 19 November 2023Description Additional FieldRead more -
The Armory Show 2023
7 - 10 September 2023aRead more -
Art Basel 2023
14 - 18 June 2023Art Basel 2023 Kunstmarkt Kunstmesse Art Fair Art Market Helene Appel, Elger Esser, Annabell Häfner, Leiko Ikemura, Daniel Knorr, Thomas Ruff, Maximilian Rödel, Elif Saydam,...Read more -
ARCOmadrid 2023
22 - 26 February 2023ARCO 2023 Feria Arte Mercado Kunstmarkt Kunstmesse Art Fair Art Market Madrid IfemaRead more -
Art Cologne 2022
16 - 21 November 2022Description Additional FieldRead more -
Art Basel 2022
16 - 19 June 2022Art Basel 2022 Kunstmarkt Kunstmesse Art Fair Art Market Helene Appel, Janis Avotins, Stephan Balkenhol, David Claerbout, Harm van den Dorpel, Slawomir Elsner, Candida Höfer,...Read more -
Art Basel 2021
22 - 26 September 2021Art Basel 2021 Kunstmarkt Kunstmesse Art Fair Art Market Thomas Struth, Candida Höfer, Thomas Ruff, Thu Van Tran, Helene Appel, Janis Avotins, Stephan Balkenhol, Slawomir...Read more -
Art Basel 2020
17 - 26 June 2020Art Basel 2020 Kunstmarkt Kunstmesse Art Fair Art Market Stephan Balkenhol, Dan Graham, Ma Ke, Karin Kneffel, Candida Höfer, Goshka Macuga, Jan Merta, Thomas Ruff,...Read more -
Art Basel Hong Kong 2020
25 - 27 March 2020Art Basel Hong Kong 2020 Art Basel 2023 Kunstmarkt Kunstmesse Art Fair Art Market ChinaRead more -
Art Basel 2019
13 - 16 June 2019Art Basel 2019 Kunstmarkt Kunstmesse Art Fair Art Market Helene Appel, Janis Avotins, Stephan Balkenhol, David Claerbout, Dan Graham, Rodney Graham, Toulu Hassani, Lorena Herrera...Read more -
Art Cologne 2019
11 - 14 April 2019Description Additional FieldRead more -
Frieze London 2018
4 - 7 October 2018Frieze London 2019 Regent's Park Art Exhibition Market Markt Messe Fair Ding Yi, Thomas Zipp, Susan Weil, Rodney Graham, Goshka MacugaRead more -
Art Basel 2018
14 - 17 June 2018Art Basel 2018 Kunstmarkt Kunstmesse Art Fair Art MarketRead more -
Art Cologne 2018
19 - 22 April 2018Description Additional FieldRead more -
Art Basel Hong Kong 2018
29 - 31 March 2018Chen Wei, Ma Ke, Stephan Balkenhol, Thomas Ruff Art Basel Hong Kong 2018 Kunstmesse Kunstmarkt Kunst Art Art Fair MarketRead more