Image credit: http://nasher.duke.edu/blog/?p=5354
One of my favorite pieces from our trip to the Nasher museum was “Porträts” by Thomas Ruff in the Jason Rubell collection. The reason that this left an impression is, for one, how different it is from everything in the collection. It’s not amazing beautiful art, it’s not abstract and open to interpretation, it’s just a collection of faces. What I find interesting beyond that is that the faces are not showing strong emotions. The viewer is meant to guess what the person in the frame is like based on their appearance.
Here is a compilation of facts about Thomas Ruff, the piece, Jason Rubell, and the collection.
- Thomas Ruff had previously drawn landscape paintings. The piece was meant to capture the flatness of his previous works in human form.
- Ruff currently works in Düsseldorf
- The pictures are meant to imitate a picture of someone on a passport.
- Ruff has been awarded 4 honors for his work in both his home country and others.
- Jason was influenced to start the collection by his parents, who were also art collectors.
- He grew up in New York City
- His parents liked to take him to art museums and have him write reviews of the art he saw and what he thought of it.
- The first piece in Jason’s collection was gifted to him at 13 by Keith Haring.
Information credit:
http://nasher.duke.edu/blog/?p=5354
You put great detail in your post.
Wow Will!! Thats a great bio!
Great job! I liked those paintings too!!
Interesting that Thomas Ruff usually did landscapes, and used the same earth-tone colors in the hair, skin, and clothes. Their emotionless expressions do resemble passport photos. The background info on the artist makes it very interesting. Nice work!