Flash Art uses cookies strictly necessary for the proper functioning of the website, for its legitimate interest to enhance your online experience and to enable or facilitate communication by electronic means. To learn more about cookies please see Terms & conditions

Flash Art
Flash Art
Shop
  • Home
    • CURRENT ISSUE: WINTER 2020-21
    • DIGITAL EDITION
    • FLASH FEED
    • Edu Alert
    • Features
    • Reviews
    • Interviews
    • On View
    • Dance Office
    • Listening In
    • PARADIGME
    • HUO’s Unrealised Projects
    • The Uncanny Valley
    • PUBLIC ART 2666
    • JUST FOLLOW ME!
    • Reports
  • Flash Art Mono
    • Dune
  • Archive
    • Shop
    • Subscription
    • INSTITUTIONAL SUBSCRIPTION
    • Contact
→
Flash Art

Spotlight

21 December 2016, 12:05 pm CET

Wolfgang Tillmans by Clayton Campbell

by Clayton Campbell December 21, 2016
August self-portrait, 2005. Courtesy of the artist.
August self-portrait (2005). Courtesy of the Artist.

Wolfgang Tillmans has been written about extensively, and it is almost alarming to see how writers project their ideas onto his work and define what he is about. It is tempting to do this, given the artist’s openness and generosity. At 38 years old, Tillmans is one of the most influential visual artists in the Western world today. His diarists’ approach presaged the advent of the MySpace universe. He is advancing unique photographic strategies marking the times we live in. He fundamentally understands how to maintain a personal logic and visual language by balancing a multiplicity of interests. He is very successful at suggesting new definitions by breaking down old ones and then almost building them back up. And he circumnavigates this tricky process with tenderness and compassion for humankind, a quality nowadays in short supply.

The current Tillmans survey exhibition at the UCLA Hammer Museum is a wonderful effort which the artist helped design and install. The curatorial staff headed by Russell Ferguson deserve great credit for their effort. While much of the work has been seen before (though not in Los Angeles) and written about, what is new are his abstractions and a version of the Truth Study Center. These works represent directions that point to possibilities and creative opportunities Tillmans could pursue further.

The abstractions are created by the direct manipulation of light on paper rather than through the camera. It’s only love, give it away from 2005 is a lush and large piece from the “Freischwimmer (Free Floating)” series. Though non-representational, the image resembles skin and hair, and images from his other series of abstractions also retain a literal quality. Yet the slight literalness of the imagery anchors them within the context of his overall project. The abstractions are arresting and evocative; Tillmans could go much further on this promising route if he chooses.

It’s only love give it away, (2005).
It’s only love give it away (2005).

The Truth Study Center is an installation of photographs and image/text pieces arranged on top of a series of tables that knowingly becomes a didactic museum display. The choices are precise, yet the effect a bit oblique. The connections between photos and found information are not obvious. The selections from newspapers and magazines are topical, themed around the ills of war, racism, homophobia and social justice issues that liberal-minded persons are concerned with. Truth Study Center raises questions about the relativity of truth and suggests that every perspective is unique and individual. He contemplates authority and power in the ‘gray areas’ as a complex network of social relationships.

But can the democratization of imagery sometimes obscure what an artist could/should be saying? If Tillmans were more direct in this project, would we hear a stronger voice for the things he deeply cares about? The recent topical installations of Thomas Hirschhorn using found photos and information stands out as direct an approach as possible while still being incredibly effective.

Clearly opinionated and a deep thinker about the world around him, Tillmans understands a lot is at stake. Somewhere between the aesthetic poles of the Truth Study Center and the abstractions, Tillmans may already be updating the ‘balances’ that hold his remarkable body of work together.

Clayton Campbell is a writer based in Los Angeles.

­­­­­­Wolfgang Tillmans was born in 1968 in Remscheid, Germany. He lives and works in London.

“Wolfgang Tillmans” is co-organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, where it runs until January 7, 2007.

Share this article
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
More stories by

Clayton Campbell

Christian Holstad

21 December 2016, 11:42 am CET

Maurizio Cattelan: Since your show at Daniel Reich’s apartment I have seen you shift media and styles often. Artists who…

Read More

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster

21 December 2016, 11:54 am CET

For Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster 2005 was a sabbatical year. Her calendar was emptied of exhibitions and public projects. The first show…

Read More

Nathalie Djurberg

21 December 2016, 11:59 am CET

­ Ali Subotnick: What are you afraid of? Nathalie Djurberg: I’m afraid of almost everything; maybe I’m less scared now…

Read More

Vanessa Beecroft

21 December 2016, 12:03 pm CET

Neville Wakefield: I’ve always understood the iconic aspect of your performances to be serial and anti-narrative. Certain aspects have changed…

Read More

  • Next

    Lucas Samaras

  • Previous

    Vanessa Beecroft

© 2021 Flash Art

  • Terms & conditions
  • Contact
  • Work with Us