BEATE GÜTSCHOW
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden Residenzschloss Taschenberg 2 01067 Dresden Allemagne
At first glance, Beate Gütschow’s photographs appear to be natural reproductions of an existent reality. However, the motifs depicted are assembled on a computer. They consist of up to 100 individual images which she has photographed in various places and then archived for future use.
Whilst each individual image reflects reality, when taken as a whole her pictures are completely fictitious.
For her first series, Beate Gütschow chose 17th and 18th-century landscape painting as her point of reference. Working in the studio, artists such as Nicolas Poussin or Claude Lorrain composed idealised landscapes which did not actually exist in the real world. Beate Gütschow employs the same compositional principles that underlie these paintings, combining fragments of contemporary reality. Her photographs seduce us with idyllic landscapes, but also disturb as digital montages and photographic representations of an idealised image of nature.
Beate Gütschow’s urban landscapes are based on photographs of modernistic and contemporary architecture. Her main emphasis is on buildings constructed in the 1960s and 1970s which were originally associated with visionary social ideals. What is left are buildings as empty shells, which Beate Gütschow breaks down into their component parts. Out of the resulting fragments she constructs new urban views which show signs of decay and traces of destruction. She creates a scenario depicting a failed utopia. Beate Gütschow presents her urban landscapes as black and white photographs, consciously drawing on the tradition of documentary photography. However, her pictures intentionally do not fulfil the usual expectations associated with such photographs – namely, that specific places and situations can be localised.
In her latest series Beate Gütschow employs the aesthetic principles and techniques of commercial and product photography and uses their methods of creating staged photographs. She demonstrates how the use of precise presentation, carefully managed reflections and light reflexes can transform unspectacular consumer goods into apparently highly desirable items. Beate Gütschow digitally composes individual objects and backgrounds into interiors that function as stages. The objects are positioned with great care, but the question is left open as to the purpose of these arrangements. In this exaggerated form, the artificiality and orchestrated nature of photographic reality are revealed.
Opening reception with the artist
Saturday, 10 October 2009, 3 p.m.
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Brühlsche Terrasse