Hütte, Axel Ise (bridge), Japan, 2010
inject print measurements: 157 x 363 cm © Axel Hütte Courtesy: © Galerie Wilma Tolksdorf Photo: Axel Hütte

About the work

In Ise (bridge), Japan (2012) a rail bridge is pictured from aerial perspective. In the background, the landscape emerges without any vanishing points of reference leading to a surreal ambiance which is enhanced by the contrast of complementary colours.

The images of bridges make up a circle of works in which “Axel Hütte brings together and reflects upon his entire artistic repertoire of imagery in terms of making an image’s structure and composition visible, applying his communication models, his manipulation of appearance and irritation caused by the disruption of perspective as well as his choice of pictorial space. He perfectly dissolves the camera viewpoint and places the iron rail bridges between the viewer and the landscape discernible in the background.”

Ralph Goertz: Covered by Clouds - Die Magie des Blicks, in: Axel Hütte, Night and Day, Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast, 2017, Dusseldorf, p.15

About the artist

born 1951 in Essen
lives and works in Dusseldorf
 

Axel Hütte is considered to be one of the most important exponents of the Dusseldorf School of Photography. As a student of the famous photography class run by Bernd and Hilla Becher at Kunstakademie Dusseldorf from 1973 to 1981, he studied alongside household names such as Candida Höfer, Thomas Struth, Jörg Sasse and Thomas Ruff. His large-scale, often painterly landscape images deconstruct the viewer’s habits of perception in their cool focus on the images structural elements. This is made possible by the use of a plate-back camera which renders space more accurately than the human eye. In this way, even images of exotic destinations are never just travelling snapshots but represent the artist’s sentiment translated into abstract form.

Important solo exhibitions by the artist have been presented i.e. at Museum Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf (2017), DZ Bank Art Collection, Frankfurt (2015), Galerie Ruzicska, Salzburg (2017, 2012), Huis Marseille Foundation for Photography, Amsterdam (2001), Museum Kurhaus Kleve (2000).

His works were part of group exhibitions at i.e. Städel Museum, Frankfurt (2017), Barbican Art Gallery, London (2016), Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin (2011), Sprengel Museum, Hanover (2000, 1993), MOCA, Los Angeles (1998) and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1994).