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Gursky, Andreas
(German, b. 1955)
San Francisco
1998
Chromogenic print
90 x 64 in. (image); 105 1/4 x 77 3/4 in. (sheet)
Purchase, Erich C. Stern Fund and the Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation Acquisition Fund
© 2003 Andreas Gursky/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst
M1999.94

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Adopting a scientific approach to his art, Andreas Gursky - a student of the Bechers - examines humankind as a species that like any other can be known through a study of its habitats. Instead of focusing his attention on individuals and their personal space, Gursky creates colossal photographs of public spaces that reflect the collective culture.

The enormous volumetric area of a San Francisco hotel atrium seen through Gursky's lens reveals itself as an essentially meaningless grid of windows, dazzling lights, and the requisite "corporate" sculpture. Looking down onto the vast interior affords a bird's-eye view of a pretentious and ultimately mundane space.

Unlike in a medieval cathedral, where scale was a means of attaining a feeling of transcendence and a hint of the glory of God, here hugeness does not produce grandeur but merely grandiosity.

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