Andreas Gursky

Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Skarstedt Fine Art, New York
Christie's, New York, November 10, 2004, lot 8
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale

Kuntshalle Dusseldorf, Andreas Gursky: Photographs From 1984 to Present, August - October 1998, p. 34, illustrated in color (another example exhibited)
New York, Hunter College, Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery, Everybody Now: The Crowd in Contemporary Art, October - December 2001, illustrated (another example exhibited)
New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Speaking with Hands: Photographs from The Buhl Collection, June - September 2004, pp. 166 and 222, illustrated (another example exhibited)
West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Show of Hands: Photographs and Sculpture from the Buhl Collection, January - March 2008 (another example exhibited)
Seoul, Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Speaking with Hands: Photographs from The Buhl Collection, March - May 2009 (another example exhibited)

Marie Luise Syring, Andreas Gursky: Photographs from 1984 to the Present, Verona, 1998, p. 34, illustrated in color

This work is in very good condition overall. There are some scattered surface abrasions on the surface of the Plexiglas which are visible under raking light and close inspection. The print is face-mounted to Plexiglas and framed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Photography from the Gund Collection

“I am never interested in the individual, but in the human species and its environment.” - Andreas Gursky

During the 1980s, Andreas Gursky emerged as one of the leading lights among a group of German photographers schooled by the eminent professors Bernd and Hilla Becher. Absorbing their systemically objective and rigorously conceptual style, Andreas Gursky's art provides a poetic commentary on our world, consisting of a series of monumental, animated vitrines, which highlight our relative insignificance within the magnitude of our surroundings. The May Day series in particular - a body of work which contains large crowds of people within the confines of the photographic frame - illustrates the frenetic human activity occasioned by public celebrations historically recognized on the 1st of May.

Gursky once remarked, "I want my motifs to look as though I could have photographed them anywhere. The places are not meant to be specifically described, but are meant to function more as metaphors. I am interested in global viewpoints in today's social utopias." (quoted in: Exh. Cat., Kunstmuseum Basel, Andreas Gursky, 2007, p. 85)

May Day II, a scene of a rave, is a picture of pure enigma. The imposing photograph presents us with a view of the crowds at a concert, their movements eerily suspended as the subjects are frozen in time. Half of the audience is obscured in shadows while the other half bask in the limelight from the stage, fist-pumping and cheering on a performer that is excluded from view. Often regarded as a social commentator of our time, Andreas Gursky utilizes these complex compositions as a means to provide new insights into human behavior in the ever-changing fabric of our surroundings. In the monumental picture, the stark clarity of the image almost provides enough details for one to recognize each individual amongst the crowd, yet any sign of individuality is at the same time rejected when one considers the removed vantage point in which Gursky took his picture, far and high above the crowds. All figures are but a minute part of a coherent whole that appears to narrate a story yet lacks any central action. The picture is injected with energy yet stripped of humanity, and such dichotomy, delicately infused within the imagery, is iconic of Gursky’s artistic output. May Day II provides an alternate reality otherwise unseen by the amateur eye, in this case suggesting the mechanical nature in which concert-goers behave, almost mechanized to a routine not unlike ants and bees in a colony. Gursky has thus poetically and deftly created an image that reflects the shifting spaces for our society, allowing us to see our role within our community and showing how humans and space exist, and are defined, in correlation to one another.