Andreas Gursky, 99 Cent. (1999), C-print [Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver BC, May 30-Sep 20] © Andreas Gursky / SODRAC (2009)

Andreas Gursky, James Bond Island III (2007), C-print [Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver BC, May 30-Sep 20] © Andreas Gursky / SODRAC (2009)

The vast photographic scenes by German photographer Andreas Gursky have been called by eye-witnesses "literally unbelievable". They capture views of the contemporary world as an overwhelming wilderness of architecture, crowds and consumer products. The images were described by Calvin Tomkins in 2001 as “the majestic aura of nineteenth-century landscape paintings, without losing any of their meticulously detailed immediacy as photographs.”

In the largest and most comprehensive survey of Gursky's work from 1980 to 2008, the Vancouver Art Gallery presents a selection of more than 130 pieces. Although the original photographs have a scale of six to ten feet, in order to represent the breadth of Gursky's wide-ranging subject matter, the images are being presented in a small panel format for this exhibition.

Gursky has set himself the goal of creating an image-based “Encyclopedia of Life” that depicts, among many other topics, the complexity and enormity of crowds on trading floors, beaches and at performances; the alienating presence of post-modern buildings and lobbies; and the expanses of consumer goods displayed in super stores or disposed of in multi-acre garbage dumps. In 2007, Gursky's 99 Cent II, Diptych, sold for USD $3.3 million, a record for highest price paid at auction for a single photographic image.

www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

Mia Johnson