Thomas Ruff

(German, born 1958)

d.o.pe.15 by thomas ruff

Thomas Ruff

d.o.pe.15, 2023

Price on Request

d.o.pe.03 iii by thomas ruff

Thomas Ruff

d.o.pe.03 III, 2022

Price on Request

d.o.pe.13 ii by thomas ruff

Thomas Ruff

d.o.pe.13 II, 2023

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d.o.pe.07 ii by thomas ruff

Thomas Ruff

d.o.pe.07 II, 2022

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untitled#03 by thomas ruff

Thomas Ruff

untitled#03, 2022

Price on Request

untitled#19 by thomas ruff

Thomas Ruff

untitled#19, 2022

Price on Request

Biography

Timeline

1958
Born in Harmersbach, Germany
1977 - 1985
Studied at National Academy of the Arts, Düsseldorf, Germany
1993
Study visit Villa Massimo, Rome, Italy
2000
Professorship at Kunstakademie Dusseldorf, Germany
2003
winner of Hans-Thoma Preis, Hans-Thoma Museum, Bernau, Germany
2006
winner of International Center of Photography Infinity Award, New York
2011
winner of PHotoEspaña 2011 Award, Madrid
2016
Artist of the Year, American Friends of Museums (AFIM), New York
Lives and works in Duesseldorf, Germany

Exhibitions

2019
Thomas Ruff Selected Exhibitions in 2019:
Thomas Ruff: Serien, Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich (solo exhibition)
Thomas Ruff: Tranforming Photography, David Zwirner, Hong Kong (solo exhibition)
Thomas Ruff: tripe & flower.s, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich (solo exhibition)
Bauhaus and Photography: On Neues Sehen in Contemporary Art, Museum für Fotografie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Criteria, Galeria do Torreão Nascente de la Cordoaria, Lisbon
Highlights for a Future: De Collectie (1), Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent [collection display]
La Source, Villa Carmignac, Fondation Carmignac, Ile de Porquerolles, Hyères, France
PHOTO, Parkett Space Zurich, Zurich
Photographic Recall: Italian Rationalist Architecture in Contemporary German Art, UB Anderson Gallery, University at Buffalo, New York
There I Belong. Hammershøi by Elmgreen & Dragset, SMK – Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen
2018
Thomas Ruff Selected Exhibitions in 2018:
Thomas Ruff, Galeria OMR, Mexico City (solo exhibition)
Thomas Ruff: neg◊lapresmidi, Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, Munich (solo exhibition)
Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today, The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston [itinerary: University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan]
Black Hole. Art and Materiality from Informal to Invisible, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo (GAMeC), Bergamo, Italy
David Zwirner: 25 Years, David Zwirner, New York
Image Building: How Photography Transforms Architecture, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York
Kleine Geschichte(n) der Fotografie/Small story(s) of Photography, Sprengel Museum, Hannover
No Two Alike: Karl Blossfeldt, Francis Bruguière, Thomas Ruff, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio [part of FotoFocus Biennial 2018]
Photography Spotlight, Victoria and Albert Museum, London [collection display]
Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art, Tate Modern, London
Une collection de photographies, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels
2017
Thomas Ruff Selected Exhibitions in 2017:
Thomas Ruff, ARARIO Museum, Jeju Island, Korea (solo exhibition)
Thomas Ruff, Etablissement d'en face Projects, Brussels (solo exhibition)
Thomas Ruff, National Portrait Gallery, London (solo exhibition)
Thomas Ruff, Whitechapel Gallery, London (solo exhibition)
Thomas Ruff: ++from the press++, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich (solo exhibition)
Thomas Ruff : Machine + Energy, Mast Foundation, Bologna (solo exhibition)
Thomas Ruff: New Works, Sprüth Magers, Berlin (solo exhibition)
COLORI. L’emozione dei COLORI nell’arte, Castello di Rivoli - Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin
Doublethink: Double vision, Pera Museum, Istanbul
I am a problem, Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK2), Frankfurt
Photographic Objects, Städel Museum, Frankfurt
Photographs Become Pictures, Städel Museum, Frankfurt
Prix Pictet: Space, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Remastered: The Art of Appropriation, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems an der Donau, Austria
SNAP. Dokumentar og portrett. Fotografier fra samlingen/Documentary and Portrait. Photography from the Collection, Museet for samtidskunst, Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, Oslo
Variable Dimensions - Artists and Architecture, Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT), Lisbon
You Are Looking At Something That Never Occurred, Zabludowicz Collection, London
2016
Thomas Ruff Selected Exhibitions in 2016:
Thomas Ruff: New Works, David Zwirner, London (solo exhibition)
Thomas Ruff, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo [itinerary: 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan] (solo exhibition)
Thomas Ruff: Object Relations, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto [organized in collaboration with Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, Toronto] (solo exhibition)
Thomas Ruff: press++, David Zwirner, New York (solo exhibition)
Behold the Man, Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, The Netherlands
Electronic Superhighway, Whitechapel Gallery, London
Invisible Adversaries: Marieluise Hessel Collection, CCS Bard Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
KAT_A Fotografie Installation, KAT_A, Bad Honnef-Rhöndorf, Germany
Pandora’s Box - Another photography by Jan Dibbets, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Photography Reinvented: The Collection of Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.
Touch the Sky: Art and Astronomy, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York
Viaje alrededor del mundo, Instituto Cultural Cabañas, Guadalajara, Mexico
2015
Thomas Ruff Selected Exhibitions in 2015:
Thomas Ruff: nature morte, Gagosian Gallery, London (solo exhibition)
2050. A brief history of the future, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels [organized in collaboration with the Musée du Louvre, Paris
Après Eden/After Eden: The Walther Collection, La Maison Rouge, Paris
Cannibalism? On Appropriation in Art, Zachęta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw
Colección Jumex, In Girum Imus Nocte et Consumimur Igni, Museo Jumex, Mexico City
Don’t Shoot the Painter. Paintings from the UBS Art Collection, GAM - Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Milano, Milan
Eye to Eye: Looking Beyond Likeness, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
FACES - between figures, portraits and masks, Neues Museum Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design in Nürnberg, Nuremberg, Germany
FACES NOW. European Portrait Photography since 1990, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
Future Present: Emanuel Hoffman Foundation. Contemporary Art from Classic Modernism to the Present Day, Schaulager, Basel
HE: The Hergott Shepard Photography Collection, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor
The Inaugural Installation, The Broad, Los Angeles
In Conversation II: A Selection of Contemporary Artworks, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Lo que no se ve. Studium y Punctum en la Colección de Fotografía Contemporánea de Telefónica (y desde La Cámara Lúcida de Roland Barthes)/Sight Unseen. Studium and Punctum in the Telefónica Contemporary Photography Collection (and from the Camera Lucida of Roland Barthes, Museo de Arte Carillo Gil, Mexico City
Mijn Vlakke Land/My Flat Country: On photography and landscape, FotoMuseum Provincie Antwerpen (FoMu), Antwerp
Perfect Likeness: Photography and Composition, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Picturex : Proximus Art Collection, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium
Sense Uncertainty: A Private Collection, Kunsthaus Zürich
Souvenirs de Paris, Peter Freeman, Inc., New York
Under the Clouds: From Paranoia to the Digital Sublime, Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal
The Way We Live Now, Modernist Ideologies at Work, Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
2014
Thomas Ruff Selected Exhibitions in 2014:
Thomas Ruff: Lichten, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent [itinerary: Kunsthalle Düsseldorf] (solo exhibition)
Thomas Ruff: ma.r.s. and negatives, Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo (solo exhibition)
Thomas Ruff: new work, Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich (solo exhibition)
Thomas Ruff: photograms, TOLOT/heuristic SHINONOME, Tokyo [organized by Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo] (solo exhibition)
Thomas Ruff: photograms and negatives, Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills (solo exhibition)
Aspects of the Self: Portraits of Our Times, Center for the Arts, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia
Early Works (Katharina Fritsch, Rodney Graham, Aldo Rossi, Thomas Ruff, Anri Sala, Wiebke Siem, Jeff Wall et al.), Johnen Galerie, Berlin
Intimität/Intimacy, Galerie der Stadt Remscheid
Las lágrimas las cosas/The Tears of Things, Centro de Arte Visuales Fundación Helga de Alvear, Cáceres, Spain
Magnus - Scènes de l’imaginaire automate, Villa Bernasconi, Geneva
Man in the Mirror, Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brussels
(Mis)Understanding Photography: Works and Manifestos, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
Propaganda für die Wirklichkeit, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany
Secret Passions: Private Flemish Collections, lille3000, Lille, France
Sleeping Beauty. Works from the Collection, Musée départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart, France
Somos Libres II: Works from the Mario Testino Collection, Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Turin
The Walther Collection (part of Les Rencontres d’Arles 2014), Espace Van Gogh, Arles, France
ein drittel weiß, KIT. Kunst im Tunnel, Düsseldorf, Germany
Datascapes, Foundation Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, Turkey
Visionen. Atmosphären der Veränderung, MARTa Herford, Herford, Germany
Colección Helga de Alvear: El Arte de Presente, Centro Centro Palacio de Cibiles, Madrid, Spain

Public Collections

FAIF Collection, Zurich, Switzerland
Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville
National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Literature

2010
Brave New World / Le Meilleur des Mondes - Du point de vue de la Collection Mudam, Mudam Luxembourg
2009 - 2010
Die Düsseldorfer Schule - Photographien 1970-2008 aus der Sammlung Lothar Schirmer, Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, Munich, Germany
Look at Me. Faces and Gazes in Art 1999-2009, Museo Cantonale d'Arte, Lugano, Switzerland