Wolfgang Tillmans

Lutz & Alex sitting in the trees

1992

Chromogenic print, printed 2012

Not on view

Wolfgang Tillmans mines his archives of photographs to construct constellations of images combined specifically for the space of each of his exhibitions. This installation presents staged and candid photographs of his friends and scenes from his own life—images that also function individually—printed at various scales and in both black-and-white and color. He perceives this very personal aesthetic investigation to have distinct political resonance, explaining: “Growing up in the ’80s, questions of style and music and youth culture all seemed inherently political. . . . So in that way, I was so excited about the connection between our private lives and politics.”

Additional text from

Seeing Through Photographs online course, Coursera, 2016

Medium Chromogenic print, printed 2012
Dimensions 24 × 20" (61 × 50.8 cm)
Credit The Family of Man Fund, Carol and David Appel Family Fund, and Committee on Photography Fund
Object number 1254.2012.11.x1-x2
Department Photography

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Wolfgang Tillmans

Wolfgang Tillmans

German, born 1968 48 works online

Imagine a group of photographs arranged with the deceivingly casual precision and emotional impact of a perfect pop song. That’s a decent approximation of what it feels like to take in a wall of photographs composed by Wolfgang Tillmans.

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