Thomas Demand

Victoria Miro Gallery, London
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 1997

Cologne, Monika Sprüth Galerie, Thomas Demand, September - November 1997 (another example exhibited)
Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, Stills: Emerging Photography in the 1990's, September - October 1997, illustrated
New York, 303 Gallery, Thomas Demand, November 1997 - March 1998, illustrated (another example exhibited)
Kunsthalle Zurich; Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Thomas Demand, March - September 1998, illustrated on front and back covers (another example exhibited)
London, South London Gallery, Site Construction. New Art from Berlin, November - December 1998 (another example exhibited)
Kunstmuseum Bonn; North Miami, Museum of Contemporary Art, Great Illusions: Demand, Gursky, Ruscha, June - November 1999, p. 35, illustrated (another example exhibited)
Umea, Bild Museet; Vancouver Art Gallery; Turin, Castello di Rivoli; Glascow, Tramway, Mirror's Edge, November 1999 - April 2001 (another example exhibited)
Duisburg, Museum Küppersmühle-Sammlung Grothe, Photo und Papier, February - June 2000 (another example exhibited)
Paris, Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Thomas Demand, November 2000 - February 2001, pp. 31-33, illustrated (another example exhibited)

Adrian Searle, "Thomas Demand. Doubt the Day", Parkett No. 62, Zurich, 2001, p. 107, illustrated

This work is in very good condition overall. There are some faint surface scratches in the upper left quadrant of the Plexiglas, only visible under raking light. The print is face-mounted to Plexiglas and unframed.
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.
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“The image is very slightly blurred, the edges not sharp, and the window frame only slightly out of focus, like it is moving or something is moving toward it. Yet Thomas Demand has meticulously constructed the space according to his own methods-cutting and pasting together paper and cardboard in order to try to capture the essence of a location or environment, and in this case, it is Jackson Pollock’s barn studio. Once Demand completes the structure, he carefully places the large camera on the tripod and with a long exposure takes the picture. Nothing moves in Demand’s studio. The click of the shutter breaks the silence.” (Francesco Bonami, Ghosts, in Thomas Demand exh. cat., Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, November 24, 2000 to February 4, 2001, p. 13)

 

This particularly haunting image by Demand is of Pollock’s last studio in Long Island. Demand found the image in a magazine and was attracted to the emotional charge of a barn interior with two windows; the rest of the barn is fleetingly saturated with the faintest of streaks of light leaking through the cracks of the wooden planks. The significance of the interior depicted in the image was also extremely attractive to Demand. It was not simply any studio but also a shrine where the spirit of the Pollock rests. A studio in which art history and even history was made. This was the site where Pollock simultaneously opened and closed the notion of painting with his most revolutionary of works. Demand pays his respects to this sacred studio with a picture that perfectly embodies the mystique of the artist’s studio and the intrigue of artistic creation without directly alluding to it belonging to Pollock specifically. In typical Demand fashion, he erases all particularities of the original site allowing for the atmosphere of the scene to engross viewers in Demand’s own piece.