Thomas Ruff

THOMAS RUFF (Zell am Harmersbach, Germany, 1958).
"d.o.pe." 2022-2023.
Pigmented digital archival prints on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Ultrasmooth 305 gsm paper.
Edition of 40 + 5 AP
Signed and numbered.
Measurements: 70 x 55 cm.

The works in this series feature fractal patterns that Ruff has generated with a new specialized software program. These patterns, which can be either mathematical or natural, are infinitely repetitive and self-similar at different scales. Ruff initially wanted to incorporate fractals into his work when he began exploring the pixelation of digital images in the late 1990s, but lacked sufficient technology. Titled after Aldous Huxley's autobiographical volume, The Doors of Perception (1954), which details the author's hallucinogenic experiments with mind-altering drugs, Ruff's series invites the viewer to reflect on the boundaries between the fantastic and the everyday. By substituting the flatness of the photographic paper for the relative thickness of the carpets, the artist further emphasizes the idea of sensory perception, while evoking the infinite "depth" of fractals.

Thomas Ruff began his career with landscape photography, after which he moved on to photographing interiors and inexpressive portraits of his friends, as part of the generation that took part in the political and social changes that occurred with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Between 1977 and 1985 Ruff studied photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf, along with other photographers, today of recognized prestige, such as Candida Höfer, Andreas Gursky and Thomas Struth, and who are part of the so-called Düsseldorf school, whose parents are Hilla and Bernd Becher. His first portraits are small format and in black and white, but he soon makes the transition to color. In 1986 he began to experiment with large formats. With his series Haus (1987-91) he explores themes beyond portraiture. Other relevant series from this period are Zeitungsfotos (1990-91) or BlaueAugen (1991). During the Gulf War, Ruff uses a night viewfinder to produce gloomy images of the streets of Düsseldorf in his series Nacht (1992-96). In his later works he continues to explore the digital manipulation of images, in this context he executes his series of nudes, the Substrat series (2002-03) and the Machine series (2003). Ruff has had solo exhibitions since 1981 in various international centers and museums. He lives and works in Düsseldorf.