''Rhein'', also known as ''Rhein I'', is a colour photograph created by the German photographer
Andreas Gursky
Andreas Gursky (born 15 January 1955) is a German photographer and professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Germany.
He is known for his Large format (photography), large format architecture and Landscape photography, landscape colour photog ...
in 1996. The photograph had a six copies edition. This was the first version of a photograph that become better known with his second version, ''
Rhein II
''Rhein II'' is a colour photograph made by German visual artist Andreas Gursky in 1999. In the image, a river (the Lower Rhine) flows horizontally across the field of view, between flat green fields, under an overcast sky. Extraneous details su ...
'', in 1999.
Description and analysis
The photograph was created using digital manipulation, which removed several human references, including people and buildings. The final result, showing the river flowing across green fields, beneath a blue cloudy sky, has similarities with the abstract paintings of
Barnett Newman
Barnett Newman (January 29, 1905 – July 4, 1970) was an American painter. He has been critically regarded as one of the major figures of abstract expressionism, and one of the foremost color field painters. His paintings explore the sense ...
. Peter Galassi stated that: "Behind Gursky's taste for the imposing clarity of unbroken parallel forms spanning a slender rectangle lies a rich inheritance of reductivist aesthetics, from
Friedrich to
Newman to
Richter to
Donald Judd
Donald Clarence Judd (June 3, 1928February 12, 1994) was an American artist associated with minimalism.Tate Modern websit"Tate Modern Past Exhibitions Donald Judd" Retrieved on February 19, 2009. In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for ...
... (with) images that read like horizontal versions of Newman paintings." This version has less vivid colors and a narrower field of vision than ''
Rhein II
''Rhein II'' is a colour photograph made by German visual artist Andreas Gursky in 1999. In the image, a river (the Lower Rhine) flows horizontally across the field of view, between flat green fields, under an overcast sky. Extraneous details su ...
''.
Art market
Three prints of this photograph are among the most expensive ever sold. A print was sold by $2,098,500 at
Sotheby's
Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
, at 10 May 2011, and another by $1,925,000 at
Phillips, at 16 May 2013. A third sold by $1,805,000 at
Sotheby's
Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
, at 12 November 2014.
Public collections
A print of the photograph is held at the
Leeum Museum of Art, in
Seoul
Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...
.
Rhein, Christie's
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rhein
Color photographs
Rhine
Landscape photographs
1996 in art
1990s photographs
Photographs by Andreas Gursky