Jeff Wall - Hatje Cantz

A hardcover book titled Jeff Wall, with a bright green spine, resting on a white surface. The cover features a photograph of a group of people on a city street, seen from a low, tilted angle. The title is overlaid in large, lime green text.

The book Jeff Wall, with a bright green spine, displayed on a white background. The cover features a photograph of a group of people on a city sidewalk at night in front of a metal fence. A woman seen from the back wears a green shirt and a trucker hat, and the title JEFF WALL is written across the image in large green letters.

A grainy, full-color photograph on a book cover with a green spine. The photo shows a candid street scene at night. A woman with short, blue-tipped hair and shiny gold heels walks to the right, passing a diverse group of people socializing on a sidewalk littered with cigarette butts.

An open photobook displays a spread with three vertical color photographs of scenes in a residential building. On the left, a man peeks from a doorway. In the center is a carpeted staircase with a purple post. On the right, a person in a purple robe reclines on a bed, looking at the camera.

An open book with a two-page photographic spread of a chaotic outdoor scene. In a bleak, rural landscape under a white sky, several people are in motion along the muddy bank of a narrow canal. White papers fly through the air as one person does a backflip into the water.

An open book displays a photograph titled After Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the Prologue. The image shows a Black man sitting in a cluttered basement room, the ceiling of which is completely covered with hundreds of glowing, bare light bulbs that intensely illuminate the space.

A minimalist two-page spread of an exhibition catalog in German. The left page lists lenders and partners. The right page is the table of contents, featuring the main title 11 RÄUME Mit Texten von Jeff Wall, along with other chapter titles, author names, and page numbers, all in black text on a plain white background.

A two-page spread from a book written in German. The left page is a full-bleed color photograph of three people sitting casually on a dirt slope in a wooded area. One person gestures while speaking, a man in the center rests his head on his hand in thought, and another person sits listening. In the middle is a small pile of rocks and debris. The right page has the title Fotografie. Bild. Tableau Eine Einführung and paragraphs of text.

A high-angle photograph of a suburban street on a sunny day. The street slopes down, lined with modest houses and vintage cars. In the front yard of one house, two men are physically restraining and removing a third man. Other people are on the sidewalks, and in the background, an elevated railway crosses the neighborhood with a city skyline in the distance.

A book spread with text on the left and a photograph on the right. The photo shows two men in black tuxedos standing in an ornate, wood-paneled hallway. One man helps the other adjust his bow tie inside a doorway with a decorative gold arch. A green light illuminates the space behind them, and a colorful floral carpet covers the floor.

A page from a book displays two photographs side-by-side, forming a single wide landscape of an urban fringe area under an overcast sky. The left photo, The Storyteller, shows a few people sitting on a muddy, grassy slope beside a dense forest. The right photo, A Sudden Gust of Wind, shows a lone person crouching on a cobblestone embankment beneath a large concrete overpass.

A color photograph of a man lying on the floor of a dated, mint-green kitchen. He is curled under a dark table, wide-eyed and staring forward with a look of distress, embodying the artwork's title, Insomnia.

A page from a book with text on the left and a photograph on the right. The photograph shows a woman with short auburn hair, viewed from behind. She wears a dark jacket and skirt and stands on a patterned carpet, looking at a catalogue in front of a wooden bookcase. The room is decorated with red curtains framing a window that looks out onto a city street.

A photographic diptych set in a room with bright yellow walls and green carpet. The left photo shows a nude person with dark hair lying face down on the floor near two plush magenta armchairs. The right photo shows a nude blonde person reclining on a daybed with pink pillows, bathed in sunlight from a large window.

A wide, warmly lit photograph of a mid-century children's party in a living room. A woman sits in a chair holding a large, lifelike ventriloquist dummy on her lap. An audience of about ten children sits on the floor and a couch, watching the dummy intently. Colorful balloons are tied to furniture and float to the ceiling, creating a scene that is both celebratory and subtly unsettling.

A side-by-side display of two photographs on a white page. The left photo shows a dark stage where four young girls in pink tops dance in a line, while a group of women in floral dresses watch from the wings. The right photo shows a theatrical set of a room where a woman stands talking to a man sitting on a red sofa, all framed by a red curtain.

A page from a book showing a photograph titled Monologue, 2013. The photo is a cinematic, dramatically lit night scene. In a grassy area in front of a dark forest, three men are gathered under a tall pole. Two men are seated in chairs, one gesturing as if in conversation, while a third man in a long coat stands beside an empty chair.

Jeff Wall

€ 58.00

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Edited by: Martin Schwander für die Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel

Graphic Design: Uwe Koch

Author: Jeff Wall

Artist: Jeff Wall

Texts by: Martin Schwander, Ralph Ubl

German

January 2024, 248 Pages, 95 Photos

Quarterbound Hardcover

250mm x 310mm

ISBN: 978-3-7757-5629-7

HATJE CANTZ VERLAG
Mommsenstr. 27
10629 Berlin
Germany
E-Mail: contact@hatjecantz.de

According to Article 9(7) of the GPSR Regulation, no additional security information is required for books without supplements or special functions.

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Elaborate Photographic Compositions

Since the late 1970s, the Canadian artist Jeff Wall has contributed significantly to establishing photography as an autonomous medium, and is regarded as one of the key vanguards of "staged photography". Referring to his approach as "near documentary", his images resemble documentary photographs in style and manner, but instead are meticulously composed, multilayered compositions. Synthesizing photography with elements from other art forms such as painting, cinema, and literature—in a complex mode that he calls "cinematography"—his deeply intellectual work stages fictional realities, memories and past experiences in an elaborate process.

Featuring more than fifty works, this catalogue accompanying the large-scale exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler juxtaposes Wall's iconic backlit color transparencies with his more recent black and white photographs and color C-prints, revealing a variety of references in content and form.

This title is also available in English.

With his innovative approach to photography, JEFF WALL (*1946, Vancouver) has significantly shaped the medium and its status within contemporary art. After completing his postgraduate studies in art history in the mid-1970s, his new conceptual approach to large-format pictorial photography attracted attention. Each of his images is a unique composition that can take years to complete. Since the mid-1990s he has expanded his repertoire, working with traditional black-and-white prints and, more recently, inkjet color prints. He lives and works in Vancouver.

EXHIBITION
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel
January 28-April 21, 2024