Victoria Miro Gallery, London
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

York, York City Art Gallery, It Must Be Abstract, It Must Change, It Must Give Pleasure, 2001
Edinburgh, The Museum of Modern Art (on temporary loan from 2006-2013)

Andreas Gursky, Andreas Gursky: Fotografien 1994-1998, Wolfsburg 1998, p. 31, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate. Condition: This work is in very good condition.
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Throughout his career to date, Andreas Gursky has created some of the most iconic and significant images of our times, utilising the photographer’s lens to reveal the hidden organisational structures that he perceives as integral to the contemporary landscape. In Gran Canaria, dating from 1955, Gursky avoids the conventional depiction of azure seas and warm sands, instead seeking out the overlooked and ignored. The relentlessly industrial landscape of Gran Canariaforces us to contemplate the effects of globalisation; the order Gursky builds within the image assessing and highlighting the manmade structures that dominate our world.

During the 1980s, Gursky emerged as one of the leaders of a pioneering group of German photographers who had studied under the renowned professors Bernd and Hilla Becher in the seventies. His work shares their sense of the importance of formal structure combined with a documentary distance and objectivity. However, although seemingly objective, Gursky’s works are actually carefully orchestrated; he was one of the first contemporary photographers to use photo editing technology to manipulate his works. Gursky leaves the viewer in a position of uncertainty, forcing us to accept the inauthenticity of our perceived realities. Similarly, his works are embedded with multifarious artistic allusions. In Gran Canaria, the promise of the hazy, distant ocean horizon and the port clearly recall the work of Claude Lorrain and traditions of landscape painting. On the other side of the image, and at the other end of the artistic spectrum, the stack of oil drums calls to mind Christo’s giant oil drum walls. These allusi📖ons work within the image further developing Gursky’s exploration of globalisation and modern culture.

In Gursky’s🥂 hands, the dust and mess of this industrial landscape is transformed. What close to would appear chaotic and disordered is metamorphosed by the objectifying distance of his lens as he reveals afresh the complex order and intricate geometries of modern life; the unexpected beauty of the image forcing us to contemplate the central themes that underpin his work.