Thomas RuffPorträts

Anyone encountering these photographic portraits by Thomas Ruff for the first time will perhaps quickly look past them and move on to the next attraction. That's how self-evident these pictures seem, so matter-of-fact, so pragmatic. But it is precisely these qualities that lead the viewer back to them. These portraits avoid the discrepancy between image and reality with minimal means. Thomas Ruff has found a pictorial formulation for the subject of the portrait, which has become so delicate, precise and open at the same time. These pictures succeed in combining the sober presence of the faces with individuality and emotion, without ever concealing the fact that on the surface that on their surface another, a strange and inaccessible world begins.
The catalog for the exhibitions at the Museum Schloß Hardenberg, Velbert, and at the Portikus, Frankfurt a. Main presents a series of 39 portraits in bust form, created between 1981 and 1987. This series of color illustrations exemplarily documents the portrait work of Thomas Ruff and - in keeping with the character of a book - foregrounds the important element of the series.
Kasper King