I was quite taken with Thomas Ruff's work, helped, I think, by their monumentality - many are somewhere in the vicinity of 1 to 2 metres along either or both dimensions.
The earlyish-career portraits - an example of the 'typology' approach that he uses at times - are a highlight, the size of the seemingly objectively shot passport-style photos of people's faces imbuing them with real interest.
Also noteworthy were his portraits of a different kind - shots of Mies van der Rohe buildings, which capture some essential simplicity. A few digitally manipulated photograms with glassy, eye-catching effect. And three different series created by (again) manipulating existing sources taking space as their subjects ("Stars", "cassini" and "ma.r.s").
Non-Ruff pieces from elsewhere in the museum that grabbed me included Tai Kambara's "Notes of a Pessimist" paintings (1923), the surrealist "Landscape with an Eye" (Ai-Mitsu, 1938), Tatsuoki Nambata's "Generation" (1959), two earlyish ones by Yayoi Kusama (this trip has brought home to me that despite the ease with which she can be identified and pigeonholed, Kusama's work has genuine charge) and three on the theme of moonlight: Shinsen Tokuoka's "Moonlight" (1950), Komei Kondo's "Moon Flower" (1964") and Tatsuo Takayama's "Heaven" (1964).
The earlyish-career portraits - an example of the 'typology' approach that he uses at times - are a highlight, the size of the seemingly objectively shot passport-style photos of people's faces imbuing them with real interest.
Also noteworthy were his portraits of a different kind - shots of Mies van der Rohe buildings, which capture some essential simplicity. A few digitally manipulated photograms with glassy, eye-catching effect. And three different series created by (again) manipulating existing sources taking space as their subjects ("Stars", "cassini" and "ma.r.s").
Non-Ruff pieces from elsewhere in the museum that grabbed me included Tai Kambara's "Notes of a Pessimist" paintings (1923), the surrealist "Landscape with an Eye" (Ai-Mitsu, 1938), Tatsuoki Nambata's "Generation" (1959), two earlyish ones by Yayoi Kusama (this trip has brought home to me that despite the ease with which she can be identified and pigeonholed, Kusama's work has genuine charge) and three on the theme of moonlight: Shinsen Tokuoka's "Moonlight" (1950), Komei Kondo's "Moon Flower" (1964") and Tatsuo Takayama's "Heaven" (1964).
