Provenance
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
Literature
Museo de Arte Lima, Thomas Struth, cover
Schirmer/Mosel, Thomas Struth: Photographs 1978-2010, p. 111
Catalogue Essay

“I wanted to make photographs in which everything was so complex and detailed that you could look at them forever and never see everything.”

Thomas Struth initially studied painting at the Dusseldorf academy under the German artist Gerhard Richter, before turning to photography. Since then, Struth’s well-known large-scale cityscapes and museum photographs have made him one of the preeminent European art photographers of our time. Struth’s knowledge of painting is evident in his mural-scale images, highlighting his mastery of formal composition and color.

During the late 1990s, Struth began to look at landscapes, in particular jungle scenes, traveling to Australia, Japan, Southwest China and Peru. These jungle-scapes are as complex are they are calming. It is fitting that Stuth’s series is aptly named Pictures from Paradise. Struth’s work has focused on wild nature, not only his own representations of what can be viewed as paradise, but also questioning its representation within cultures.

Through these lush and steamy images taken at various locations throughout the world, Struth has taken on the role as a world traveler and storyteller. Each image conveying a texture so dense, it hinders the viewer’s eye from even entering into the misty and overwhelmingly verdant landscape, no matter how tangible it may seem. This complexity is masterfully conveyed in the featured lot, Paradise 26 (Bougainville), Palpa, Peru. The richness of detail, lush crimson and fuchsia shades, evokes sultriness within the composition. Although the subject matter may, at first glance, appear conventional, Struth’s keen photographic eye captures an intricacy and density in its “all over” nature that envelops us. Perhaps drawing us in closer to our own stillness and meditations: our own paradise.
Artist Biography
Thomas Struth
Thomas Struth is a German photographer best known for his large-scale, classically composed photos of museum, cityscapes, and family portraits. Struth is a prominent member of the Düsseldorf School of Photography, the group of artists who studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the mid-1970s under influential photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher. Struth’s highly centralized, balanced photos incorporate cutting-edge photographic techniques and the tenets of classical composition to develop the documentarian aims of the Bechers.

Struth’s work has been widely celebrated by the international art community. He represented Germany at the 44th Venice Biennale in 1990 and has been the subject of major retrospectives including those at the Dallas Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Haus der Kunst, Munich. He lives and works in Berlin and New York.

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16

Thomas Struth

Paradise 26 (Bougainville), Palpa, Peru

2003
Chromogenic print, face-mounted to Plexiglas.
80 x 63 in. (203.2 x 160 cm)
Overall 85 x 68 1/4 x 2 3/8 in. (215.9 x 173.4 x 6 cm)
Signed in pencil, printed title, date and number 6/10 on an artist's label affixed to the reverse of the frame.

Estimate
$100,000 - 150,000

Sold for $112,500

Contact Specialist
Vanessa Kramer Hallett
Worldwide Head, Photographs

Shlomi Rabi
Head of Sale, New York

General Enquiries:
+1 212 940 1245

Photographs Evening Sale

New York 1 April 2015 6pm

1
Lewis Wickes Hine
Team Work, Empire State Building, New York City
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $16,250
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2
Tina Modotti
Sugar Cane
Estimate $70,000 - 90,000
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3
Alfred Stieglitz
The Steerage
Estimate $180,000 - 220,000
Sold for $197,000
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4
Richard Avedon
The Family
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $233,000
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5
Richard Avedon
Robert Frank, photographer, Mabou Mines, Nova Scotia, July 17
Estimate $30,000 - 40,000
Sold for $52,500
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6
Irving Penn
Frozen Foods, New York
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $106,250
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7
Irving Penn
Black and White Fashion with Handbag (Jean Patchett) (C), New York
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $106,250
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8
Helmut Newton
Walking Women, Paris
Estimate $700,000 - 900,000
Sold for $905,000
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9
František Drtikol
Nude
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $106,250
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10
Man Ray
Reclining Nude with Satin Sheet
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $329,000
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11
Irving Penn
Picasso (B), Cannes
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $100,000
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12
Sharon Core
Candy Counter 1969
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $52,500
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13
John Baldessari
Green Sunset (with Trouble)
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $365,000
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14
Cindy Sherman
Untitled #103
Estimate $90,000 - 120,000
Sold for $118,750
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15
Thomas Ruff
Sterne 23h 39m/-55°
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $112,500
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16
Thomas Struth
Paradise 26 (Bougainville), Palpa, Peru
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $112,500
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17
Adam Fuss
Untitled
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $43,750
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18
Hiroshi Sugimoto
Lake Superior, Cascade River
Estimate $350,000 - 550,000
Sold for $305,000
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19
Desirée Dolron
Xteriors XII
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $125,000
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20
Diane Arbus
A widow in her bedroom on 55th St., NYC
Estimate $200,000 - 250,000
Sold for $233,000
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21
Katy Grannan
Anonymous, Los Angeles
Estimate $15,000 - 25,000
Sold for $22,500
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22
Nobuyoshi Araki
A/FILM 6 X 7
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
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23
Pierre et Gilles
Les amoureaux/ Johan et Léo
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $50,000
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24
Robert Mapplethorpe
Flag
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $87,500
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25
Wolfgang Tillmans
Torino Installation
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $43,750
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26
Robin Rhode
Ballad to Ballet
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
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27
Zhang Huan
Family Tree
Estimate $180,000 - 220,000
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Photographs Evening Sale

New York 1 April 2015 6pm

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Provenance

Literature

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Thomas Struth

16

Thomas Struth

Paradise 26 (Bougainville), Palpa, Peru

Photographs Evening Sale

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