(Copyright: Taschen)
Wolfgang Tillmans is often seen as one of the coolest photographers on the planet, so it was time for one of the coolest art publishers on the planet to publish a retrospective look at Tillmans' work.
The German photographer is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of his generation. Always imitated, never bettered, Tillmans is the lens-meister of the zeitgeist, the photo-journo who went artside, a man in constant demand, moving effortlessly from magazine to fashion shoot to gallery retrospective.
From the outset Tillmans ignored the traditional separation of art exhibited in a gallery from images and ideas conveyed through other forms of publication, giving equal weight to both.
He creates identities, he's the brand name of hip. From Ray Gun to i-D, his images feel iconic before they're out of the fluid. I'll be your mirror, he whispers, and the Gen X-kids find themselves reflected in his always open pictures.
From the portraits that made the German born photographer famous, through the still lives and landscapes (undermining the genres with every shot), Tillmans's work is high color, dirty realist heaven. Finding the still point in the information overload, the sexuality in the machine, and the image in the image saturation, Tillmans gives us the brief epiphanies we might just remember as our own.
The work of Wolfgang Tillmans has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1996 and Tate Britain, London, in a major retrospective in 2003. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 2000.
TASCHEN's 3 Wolfgang Tillmans books packaged together as a special set: Tillmans, Tillmans Burg, and Truth Study Centre is available from September in store and online via the Taschen website and will set you back £27.99.
Forthcoming Wolfgang Tillmans solo exhibitions
Zacheta, Warsaw, 18 November 2011 – 31 January 2012
São Paulo Museum of Modern Art (opening January 2012)
Kunsthalle Zurich (opening 31 August 2012)
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