An excerpt from my review of Wolfgang Tillman's solo exhibiton at Maureen Paley.
The full review can be read here: https://dorrellmerritt.co.uk/Wolfgang-Tillmans-solo-exhibition
All images © Courtesy the artist and Maureen Paley.
'As ubiquitous as the name Tillmans is, precisely pinpointing his most important works by title alone isn’t an easy task, due in part to the sheer volume of his artistic archive. Yet his distinct aesthetic, steadfast in the psyche of audiences by way of images such as Paper drop (2014), Concorde L-433-11 (1997) and his Greifbar images (2014 onwards) transcends words and (in most cases) requires little introduction. It is these very same Greifbar images that dominate his latest exhibition: the ninth no less of a visual artist who has at least, penetrated, and at most, dominated the contemporary photographic world for the past three decades. Fast approaching twenty years since being the first photographer to have been awarded the Turner Prize, he returns with a closely curated collection of works that show the scale, scope and dynamism of his creative practice within photography, and beyond.
The large, abstract and imposing images, famed for their creation in the dark-room without the use of a photographic negative nor camera, are rooted inherently within the organic. When translated from German, 'greifbar' means tangible— possibly titled as such in metaphoric reference to the manipulation of light, made physical. The purity of using just paper and light is undoubtedly an organic one, but even visually, with the tones, colours, marks and forms created— without knowing exactly what one is looking at, there still remains an ineffable air of natural beauty. The images seem alive: none of the textures— the marks, forms or colours within any of the frames seem random, unplanned or synthetic. By removing the camera within this process, the maker, Tillmans could not be more present in creating images that essentially represent both nothing in particular and yet, everything....'.