Jeff Wall - Hatje Cantz

A hardcover book by Jeff Wall, set at an angle on a white background. The front cover displays a photograph of a group of people on a city sidewalk, with the author's name in large, bright green letters. The book has a matching bright green spine.

A physical photographic print with a green spine, showing a candid street scene at night. A diverse group of young people are gathered on a sidewalk littered with cigarette butts. In the foreground, a woman with short, blue-tipped hair and shiny gold heels walks away from the camera, while a few men stand talking behind her.

A two-page spread in an open art book displays three vertical color photographs. The left image shows a man peeking from a dark doorway into a hallway. The center image shows a carpeted staircase in a hallway. The right image shows a person in a patterned robe reclining on a bed in a spartan room.

An open book displaying a full-spread color photograph of a frenetic scene in a rural landscape. By a narrow waterway, one person is captured mid-air doing a flip into the water, while others run on the muddy banks. Dozens of white papers are caught in the wind, scattering across the overcast sky.

An open book displays a photograph of a man in a cluttered room. The man, seen from behind, sits on a chair under a ceiling completely covered in hundreds of glowing, bare light bulbs that brightly illuminate the space. The facing page identifies the work as After Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the Prologue.

A two-page spread from an art exhibition catalog with a minimalist, clean design. The left-hand page lists Lenders and Partners. The right-hand page is a table of contents, prominently featuring the title 11 ROOMS, Commentary by Jeff Wall. Other entries include Foreword and Acknowledgments, Photograph. Picture. Tableau., Exhibited Works, and a bibliography. The text is a simple black sans-serif font on a white background.

A two-page spread from an art book. The left page features a color photograph of three people in casual attire sitting on a dirt slope in a forest around a small, dying fire. The right page contains text with the heading, Photograph. Picture. Tableau. An Introduction by Martin Schwander, arranged in two columns.

An outdoor, eye-level photograph of a man in a brown coat sitting on a tree stump that is propped up by two cinder blocks on a paved hill. He is in the pose of Rodin's The Thinker, with his chin resting on his hand, looking out over a distant city skyline under a clear blue sky. A tall, curved street lamp stands to his left.

A wide, high-angle color photograph of a sunny suburban street lined with houses and vintage cars. In the background, an elevated transit line crosses the neighborhood. In the front yard of one house, three people are in the middle of a physical altercation, suggesting an eviction in progress.

A two-page book spread. The right page features a photograph of two men in black tuxedos standing in an elegant, wood-paneled hallway with a vibrant, patterned carpet. One man adjusts the bow tie of the other as they stand in a gilded archway that emits a green glow. The left page is white with a small caption at the bottom.

A wide, composite photograph set on a book page, depicting a scene under a large concrete overpass. On the left, a small group of people sit together on a muddy, tree-lined embankment. On the right, the ground turns to stone, and a single person sits in isolation under the concrete structure. Text below identifies the two sides as separate artworks by Jeff Wall.

A full shot of a dated kitchen with mint green cabinets. A man in a striped shirt and dark pants lies on his side on the floor under a brown table, staring at the viewer with a distressed and exhausted expression.

A woman with short red hair, seen from behind, stands in a richly decorated room. She wears a brown jacket and a dark skirt and is looking through a catalogue in front of a large wooden display cabinet. To her right is a window with heavy red curtains, offering a glimpse of a city street outside.

A diptych from the series Summer Afternoons, 2013, presented on a white page. On the left, a nude woman lies face down on the green floor of a yellow room with two purple armchairs. On the right, another nude woman reclines on a daybed in the same sunlit yellow room.

A staged photograph of a children's party in a dimly lit, mid-century living room. A woman presents a large, life-like puppet with a ruff collar to a group of a dozen children who are gathered around, watching intently. Colorful balloons float against the ceiling, contributing to the surreal and slightly unsettling atmosphere of the scene.

A page from a book showing a diptych titled Actor in two roles. The image on the left features four young girls in pink outfits dancing on a dark stage, while a group of women in floral dresses watch from the back corner. The image on the right shows a stage set of a dimly lit room where a man sits on a red sofa and a woman stands nearby, framed by a red theater curtain.

A cinematic night photograph of three men in a grassy area under a stark light. Two men are seated on chairs and appear to be in conversation, while a third man in a long overcoat stands nearby next to an empty chair. In the background are a chain-link fence and a dark forest.

Jeff Wall

€ 58.00

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By (artist): Jeff Wall

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

January 2024, 248 Pages, 95 Photos

Quarterbound Hardcover

250mm x 310mm

ISBN: 978-3-7757-5630-3

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.

The title is also available in German.

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