Exhibition view of ʻAndreas Gurskyʼ / Image courtesty of APMA, ©studio_kdkkdk
The solo exhibition ‘Andreas Gursky’ by artist Andreas Gursky, a master of contemporary photography, opened on Mar. 31 at the Amorepacific Museum of Art (APMA). Gursky is a photographer who is praised for breaking the photographic art frame and writing a new history of contemporary photography from a unique experimental spirit. This exhibition is attracting a lot of attention as it is his first solo exhibition in Korea and also a place in which to showcase two large-scale new works that have never before been released. The exhibition is composed of three themes: the ‘constructed image’, ‘art historical references’, and ‘sublime aspiration’, helping to deepen understanding of the artist’s work. A total of 47 pieces of exhibits range from works shot with a film camera in the 1980s, when the artist began his career, to representative works such as Paris Montparnasse and 99 Cent, which show Gursky’s experiments such as digital editing and image manipulation. It also includes new works that express daily life in the pandemic. Through this show, we can see that the artist has expanded the possibilities of contemporary photography over his 40 years long career. Gursky’s work is based on the rapidly changing modern society and the anonymous group who live within it. The skyscrapers, factories, apartments, and stock exchanges he captured symbolise modern civilization and overwhelm the viewer on a gigantic scale. However, if you look closely, these pictures also contain the lives of individuals who are small but clearly present within a large panorama. In front of his works, the audience will contemplate the existence of the individual in modern society. The exhibition is on display until Aug. 14.