Andreas Gursky’s oeuvre, encompassing well over 200 works, visualises complex constructions of reality, all of which are linked to social issues. Work, leisure, consumer behaviour, major events and financial systems have been addressed in his photographs over the course of several decades. Gursky’s eye is clinical, precise and consistently subjective. His compositions are technically and visually unique. The works visualise a facet and association-rich view of our globalised world. His interest in abstract image forms leads the artist to create pictures that are both full and empty at the same time.
Born in Leipzig the son of advertising photographer Willy Gursky (1921–2016) and grandson of the photographer Hans Gursky (1890–1969), from 1956 Andreas Gursky grew up in Düsseldorf, where he completed his studies in Photography at the Kunstakademie in 1987 as master student of Bernd Becher (1931–2007). He lives and works in Düsseldorf and on Ibiza. Although Gursky is regarded as one of the most successful contemporary photographers worldwide, thus far he has had no solo exhibition dedicated to him in Leipzig.
Gursky has selected the works as a highly-personal retrospective. The MdbK will display both older, iconic works that have imprinted themselves on the visual memory, such as “99 Cent” (1999), and new works that have yet to be exhibited in a museum. The compilation of some 80 works, including around 50 in extremely large format, will be on display on the third floor of the museum, on a surface area of approximately 1,500 m².
