Lot 180 D

Thomas Struth's photograph of an art historian whom he portrayed in 1987 leaning over a book in front of paintings from the 17th and 18th century gave the photographer the “initial idea to combine a contemporary as well as a historic moment on the same plane.” (Thomas Struth, quoted from: Thomas Struth. Fotografien 1978-2010, exhib.cat. Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K20, Düsseldorf i.a., Munich 2010, p. 198)
As a consequence, the series Museum Photographs was created, shot in large museums all over the world, in which Struth subtly sets historic paintings and museum visitors, deeply immersed in the viewing, in relation to one another.
In contrast to most photographs of this series of works, which only show the occasional visitor or small groups standing in front of the paintings, this photograph, created in the Raphael Rooms of the Vatican Museum at the end of the 1990s, shows a moving throng of people. Closely crowded, the tourists stream through the room, looking at the frescoes or in the guide book, talking to each other, gesticulating.
At first glance, this photograph is characterised by the contrast that exists between Raphael's figures, who are supended in silent motionlessness and timelessness, and their contemporary audience, which seems ephemeral due to the high blurring of movement. Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes clear how well Thomas Struth, who forgoes with any kind of staging in his Museum Photographs, understands how to interlock these very different spheres as closely as possible: the colours of the viewers' jackets, sweaters and backpacks correspond with the colouring of the frescoes ; outstretched hands pointing to picture details are echoed in the gesture of the figure of Pope Gregory IX to the right of the window etc. “Struth's pictorial inventions are always the result of direct camera photography, close observation and patient waiting for a fruitful constellation of people and works of art in the spirit of his artistic concept.” (quoted from Thomas Weski, Über das Bild hinaus, in: Thomas Weski/Ulrich Wilmes (ed.), Thomas Struth, Munich 2017, p. 15)