Andreas Gursky (born 1955) German, Large Photographic 2006 FIFA Offset Lithograph Poster. Shows an enormous space being filled in with synthetic turf in preparation of the event, from a dizzyingly high perspective. Attribution and title at bottom. Signed and numbered 112/800 in pencil bottom middle. Certificate of Authenticity from Galerie M2 included in plastic sleeve attached to back of frame. 

Overall Size: 43 x 30 1/2 in. 

Sight Size: 9 1/4 x 26 1/2 in. 

#5323 

Andreas Gursky was born on January 15th, 1955 in Leipzig, East Germany. His family relocated to West Germany shortly afterwards, moving to Essen and then Düsseldorf by the end of 1957. From 1978 to 1981 he attended the Universität Gesamthochschule Essen where he studied visual communication, led by photographers Otto Steinert and Michael Schmidt. Between 1981 and 1987 he studied further at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, influenced by teachers Hilla and Bernd Becher, a photographic team known for their distinctive, dispassionate method of systematically cataloging industrial machinery and architecture. Gursky’s style of larger-scale photography ever since has demonstrated a similarly methodical approach, with additional notable influence by the British landscape photographer John Davies and the American photographer Joel Sternfeld, particularly his adherence to using an elevated vantage point and sweeping perspective. Until the 1990s Gursky did not digitally manipulate his images, but became a vocal advocate of the benefit of computers to edit and enhance photographic work, particularly to produce incredible scaling effects. His enormous panoramic prints have generated both acclaim and controversy in the art world, opening discussions about the act of creation and the portrayal of subjects through the medium. Most of Gursky’s photographs, given their size, come in limited editions, and since 2010 he has been represented by Gagosian Gallery in Manhattan. He held the record for highest price paid at auction for a single photographic image from 2011 until 2022, when his print Rhein II sold for $4,338,500 at Christie’s. He has participated in countless exhibitions and catalogs, with his work first exhibited in Germany in 1985 and quickly spreading to other countries by the early 90s. His first major retrospective was at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2001, and many of his pieces are in public collections at the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Tate Modern in London, among others.