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Stuart Regen Gallery
619 North Almont Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Tel. (213) 276-5424
Fax. (213) 276-7430

THOMAS RUFF EXHIBITION
October 6-30, 1990
Gallery hours: Tuesday-Friday 10:00-6:00
Saturday 11:00-6:00




The Stuart Regen Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of works by the renowned German photographer Thomas Ruff. Ruff’s latest series entitled “Sterne/Stars” will be on view in the main gallery, accompanied by several “Portraits” in the auxiliary gallery.

Born in 1958 and a graduate of the Kunstakedemie in Dusseldorf under Bernd Becher (of Bernd & Hilla Becher), Thomas Ruff’s objective explorations through the photographic medium have rendered him one of the foremost contemporary German artists working today. Since the early 80s Ruff’s striking, over-sized portraits engendered a great deal of critical acclaim. Monumental in scope and generally frontal, Ruff’s “Portraits” seemed an exercise in neutrality, precision, and serial organization--while putting forth a formidable presence and an almost minimalist clarity. His next series, architectural photographs of houses, possessed the same typological coolness of the “Portraits.” The recent “Stars,” black and white photographs of the constellations, brings photography into an even more abstract realm. Presented with the same neutrality as in his previous work, the “Stars” are representations of the northern and southern hemispheres, cropped and edited in a manner that is anything but romantic.

Ruff’s photographs may easily be seen as a contemporary embellishment of the German, pre-WWII, photographic tradition: the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit). Whether his theme is portraits, houses, or stars the photographer’s distance from his subjects remains the same (both on a macro- and micro- level), rendering the camera “a kaleidoscopic instrument,” intent primarily on the photographer’s own position of neutrality.

A retrospective of Thomas Ruff’s photographs has recently traveled to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Centre National d’Art Contemporain - Magasin in Grenoble, and is currently on view at the Kunsthalle in Zurich.






The Stuart Regen Gallery will open with Thomas Ruff on October 6th, 1990. A reception for the artist will be held the same day from 6:00 to 8:00. For further questions please contact Stuart Regen or Shaun Caley at the gallery.