Thomas Struth
Thomas Struth
15 March - 23 April 2022
Thomas Struth
ALICE, CERN, Saint Genis-Pouilly 2019, 2019
inkjet print
Image: 106 3/8 x 90 1/2 in. (270.2 x 230 cm)
Frame: 111 3/4 x 95 5/8 x 2 3/4 in. (283.8 x 243 x 7 cm)
Frame: 111 3/4 x 95 5/8 x 2 3/4 in. (283.8 x 243 x 7 cm)
Edition of 6
Marian Goodman Gallery is delighted to announce an exhibition of new work by Thomas Struth. The exhibition will present recent works created over the past two years from his ongoing series Nature and Politics and Family Portraits.
The presentation will highlight new photographs from his investigation into science, technology and industry, created at the scientific institute CERN in Switzerland. These works will be presented in relation to new portraits and landscape photographs. Bringing together disparate themes, Thomas Struth reflects on our contemporary condition and the interrelationships between technology, people, and nature.
Installation view, North Gallery
Installation view, North Gallery
Installation view, North Gallery
Installation view, North Gallery
Family Portraits, between North and South Gallery
Installation view, South Gallery
Installation view, South Gallery
Installation view, South Gallery
Since 2019, a few years after meeting CERN particle physicist Dr. James Beacham, Struth has developed a large cluster of works that explores the technological environments at the world’s largest scientific research center. These photographs, on display in the North Gallery, depict various scientific set-ups and high-tech machinery employed towards the study of the structure of the universe, ranging from the ALICE detector to cosmic ray testing devices, and more.
Thomas Struth
Magnet 2, COMPASS, CERN, Prévessin-Moens 2019, 2019
Inkjet print
Image: 70 1/8 x 99 in. (178 x 251.4 cm)
Frame: 74 x 103 x 2 3/8 in. (188 x 261.6 x 6 cm)
Frame: 74 x 103 x 2 3/8 in. (188 x 261.6 x 6 cm)
Edition of 6
Thomas Struth
Cosmic Ray Test Area, ATLAS, CERN, Meyrin 2019, 2019
Inkjet print
Image: 70 1/8 x 122 in. (178 x 309.8 cm)
Frame: 74 1/8 x 126 1/8 x 2 3/8 in. (188.3 x 320.4 x 6 cm)
Frame: 74 1/8 x 126 1/8 x 2 3/8 in. (188.3 x 320.4 x 6 cm)
Edition of 6
Thomas Struth
The Heitzler Barron Family, Berlin 2021, 2021
Inkjet print
Image: 37 3/8 x 47 1/2 in. (95 x 120.7 cm)
Frame: 40 3/8 x 50 5/8 x 1 3/4 in. (102.6 x 128.6 x 4.4 cm)
Frame: 40 3/8 x 50 5/8 x 1 3/4 in. (102.6 x 128.6 x 4.4 cm)
Edition of 6
Mediating between the North and South Gallery are new Family Portraits, a continuation of the series driven by Struth’s psychological interest in interfamilial relations since the late 1980s. Recently, Struth has resumed photographing families, tracing how distinct families compose themselves and constitute in their formation an identity as a social unit within the backdrop of our new reality of social distancing.
“I think that I was always fascinated by family construction and by the constitution of identity. Once you try to look with a bit more distance, the three constituting elements of life are the family, the cultural environment in which one is born, and the historical time.”
“I ask people to sit however they want to sit, or stand. Its part of the system that inevitably people sit or position themselves according to the dynamic of the moment and whoever they want to be close to… it represents the dynamic of the moment in the group.”
Thomas Struth, as interviewed in Foto 8, 2008
Thomas Struth
Schlichter Weg, Feldberger Seenlandschaft 2021, 2021
Inkjet print
Image: 85 1/4 x 177 1/8 in. (216.4 x 450 cm)
Frame: 90 1/8 x 182 1/8 x 2 3/4 in. (229 x 462.6 x 7 cm)
Frame: 90 1/8 x 182 1/8 x 2 3/4 in. (229 x 462.6 x 7 cm)
Edition of 6
Thomas Struth
Hecke, Feldberger Seenlandschaft 2021, 2021
Inkjet print
Image: 52 3/4 x 70 3/8 in. (134 x 178.9 cm)
Frame: 56 x 73 5/8 x 1 7/8 in. (142.2 x 187 x 4.8 cm)
Frame: 56 x 73 5/8 x 1 7/8 in. (142.2 x 187 x 4.8 cm)
Edition of 6
Thomas Struth
Ellsworth Schist, Rockport, Maine 2021, 2021
Silver gelatin print
Image: 47 1/4 x 35 1/2 in. (120 x 90.1 cm)
Frame: 49 3/4 x 39 1/2 x 1 5/8 in. (126.4 x 100.3 x 4.1 cm)
Frame: 49 3/4 x 39 1/2 x 1 5/8 in. (126.4 x 100.3 x 4.1 cm)
Edition of 6
Thomas Struth
Baum, Feldberger Seenlandschaft 2021, 2021
Inkjet print
Image: 61 3/8 x 81 7/8 in. (156 x 208 cm)
Frame: 65 x 85 5/8 x 2 3/8 in. (165.1 x 217.5 x 6 cm)
Frame: 65 x 85 5/8 x 2 3/8 in. (165.1 x 217.5 x 6 cm)
Edition of 6
The panoramic landscape Schlichter Weg, Feldberger Seenlandscahft, 2021, a photograph initiated in Germany during the pandemic, occupies a central position in the South Gallery. This monumental 4.5- meter work was shot in January 2021 near Struth’s country house and will be accompanied by related landscape works. The photograph shows a snow-covered landscape with several trees and shrubs in an ambiguous state between hibernation and decay.
Thomas Struth
X-ray Telescope, CAST, CERN, Ferney-Voltaire 2021, 2021
Inkjet print
Image: 66 1/2 x 52 in. (169 x 132 cm)
Frame: 71 1/2 x 55 1/4 x 1 7/8 in. (181.6 x 140.3 x 4.8 cm)
Edition of 6 (#3/6)
Thomas Struth
Ion Source, PSB, CERN, Meyrin 2019, 2019
Inkjet print
Image: 47 x 34 7/8 in. (119.3 x 88.5 cm)
Frame: 50 1/8 x 38 x 1 3/4 in. (127.3 x 96.5 x 4.5 cm)
Edition of 6 (#3/6)
Struth explores the construction of the built environment and authenticity in his vast urban landscapes. His fascination with metaphors of human progress and questions regarding human achievement are explored within the context of the representation of science, industry and technology. Since 2007, these formally elegant pictures contain all-over compositions which are almost sculptural in their depictions. Inquiries into unseen backdrops of our contemporary reality, they represent hidden truths within the contours of space flight, industrial, nuclear and energy production, medical research, turbine halls, A.I., robotics, particle physics, and more recently, inquiries into conservation and the adaptability of wildlife.
Struth is interested in photographing “places which are at the crossroads of technology and ambition, where the limits of what is possible are continually being tested.”
Archive, Matrix, Assembly: The Photography of Thomas Struth, a comprehensive publication on the artist’s work, was published by Applied Research & Design in 2021. Presenting an evolutionary understanding of the work, the author Nana Last proposes three stages of Struth’s production through ideas on the archive, matrix, and assembly. A conversation between the artist and the author will take place on Tuesday, 21 March at 6:30 pm at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and a presentation on her recent publication will take place at University of Virginia, Charlottesville, this spring.
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