In 2008, the Viehof Collection was able to acquire a very special group of photographic works. These are the 101 C-prints from the Winterthur series by Thomas Struth. The Viehof Collection is the only art collection in the world to hold so many works from this series. The flower paintings and landscapes by Thomas Struth were created between 1991 and 1993. They were commissioned for patients rooms in a private clinic in Winterthur, Switzerland. The Viehof Collection is the only art collection in the world to include all 101 artworks from this series.
Sea of flowers and landscapes – nothing but nature as far as the eye can see. Ones first thought is that this is rather simple, trivial subject matter; after all, our culture today considers plant and flower motifs to be primarily decorative. The artworks are intended to be like windows, opening up the space and connecting patients‘ rooms to a living cosmos. They are not simply décor. In his flower pictures, created by photographing from close proximity, from different angles, and sometimes using overexposure or underexposure, Struth is not interested in portraying perfection. Instead, the theme of these photographs is a fantastic living diversity that – like the patients living in the rooms – are not in a state of stable equilibrium, but within the flow of time. Struth sometimes shows us closed buds, wilting flowers, crooked branches, or dried leaves. The flowers and landscapes are not intended simply to please the eye. Nor is this a schematic arrangement of botanical classifications. If it were, then the sole dandelion flower in Einzelner Löwenzahn – N°37, Düsseldorf, Neanderstraße 25 1993 would have to be seen as a representative of all existing dandelion flowers. On the contrary, Struth is concerned solely with this individual flower, with its peculiar characteristics. The flower is portrayed here heavily magnified, authentically, as a fragile individual. The concrete location in the title serves to emphasise this.
Text: Annika Forjahn, in: Freischwimmer - Fotografie der Sammlung Viehof und des Museum Kurhaus Kleve, 2020, S. 88-97
