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January 31, 2012
Thomas Demand is known for his large scale photographs that question the medium as a faithful record of reality in that he makes photographs of three-dimensional models that look like real images of rooms and other spaces.
A residency at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles where he discovered the archive of the Californian architect John Lautner (1911 – 1994). He photographed 12 architectural models he discovered in the Lautner archive:
Thomas Demand, Wood 89, Pigment Print, 2011.
The lines, planes, textures and colours Demand composes from Lautner's models recall modernist painting and sculpture, including Picasso’s reliefs and fragments of cubist bricolage, as well as mid-20th century abstract painting.
Thomas Demand, untitled, Lautner model studies, 2011
The representation of battered old models from different angles is independent of the buildings to which they refer:
Thomas Demand, untitled, Lautner model studies, 2011
They are abstractions that refer back to the some of the early modernist work ofPaul Outerbridge from 1921 – 1933 that explored cubism.
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