Synopses & Reviews
Following the 2010 exhibition at Gagosian Gallery Beverly Hills, this magnificent set of slipcased books captures the grandness and lushness of the epic photographs of Andreas Gursky, one of the world’s greatest living photographers.
This is the first book featuring the artist's new "Ocean" series, in which the artist relinquished his position behind the camera to work with satellite images of the world as the basis for this work.
In their darkly-nuanced surfaces, Gursky creates contemporary mappe del mondo continuing the debates and practices begun in the nineteenth century, but on a scale befitting the cosmic grandeur of the subject. The book is divided into two large-format volumes with one showcasing his new "Ocean" works and the other a grouping of subjects he has selected from the last twenty years, from the landscape Mqlheim an der Ruhr, Anglers (1989) to the empty scene of Untitled XV (2008).
About the Author
Art historian Norman Bryson has been published widely in the areas of eighteenth-century art history, critical theory, and contemporary art. Werner Spies is an art historian and curator. He was one of Andreas Gurskys mentors during the artists years at the Düsseldorf Academy. Andreas Gursky was born in 1955 in Leipzig, former East Germany. He attended Folkwangschule, Essen (1978-1981) and Staatliche Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf (1981-1987). Recent major museum exhibitions include "Werke-Works 80-08", Kunstmuseen Krefeld (2008, touring to Moderna Museet, Stockholm and Vancouver Art Gallery in 2009); Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland (2007); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2007, touring to Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, Sharjah Art Museum, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, and Ekaterina Foundation, Moscow in 2007-2008); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2001, touring to Reina Sofia, Madrid, Centre Pompidou, Paris, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago in 2001-2002). His work is included in important public and private collections throughout the world.