Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Tableaux.






Tableaux. Photography by Jeff Wall, text by Marit Woltmann. Art Consulting Scandinavia, 2004. 124 pp., 24 colour and 22 black & white illustrations., 9½x6½".

Canadian artist Jeff Wall is best known for his large back-lit photographs made using the ilfochrome technique, as well as his art-historical writing.

His photographs often takes 'Vancouver's mixture of natural beauty, urban decay and postmodern and industrial featurelessness as their backdrop'.


In the work displayed in the book 'Tableaux' "the focus is on the art-historical connections in his work, where pointers to celebrated historical achievements in art are frequently in evidence.

His photographs are often carefully staged like a scene in a film, with full control of all details. Their composition always well thought through, and often borrowed from classical painters like Edouard Manet.

The themes are social and political, such as urban violence, racism, poverty, gender and class conflicts."


You can learn more about Jeff Wall by for example reading this interview, viewing this interactive exhibition at the MoMA, or here at the White Cube Gallery.


The first quote is from the wikipedia entry for Jeff Wall, the second is from the publisher's description.

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