Thomas Ruff Portraits

Small exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of large photo portrait photographs by Thomas Ruff.

These pictures are very striking as you come down the stairs and are like large passport photos. There are just four pictures in the show from a series Ruff started in 1986. The detail is almost hyper real as they are so big such as the stitches in a hand knitted jumper on one of the sitters and I’d kill for their great skin.

However as the works are of women of a similar age, are the same size and have the same white background they seem to be about commonality rather than the individuals. You can make some assumptions from jewellery etc but oddly you focus on the surface and don’t look below it.

Closes on 21 January 2018

 

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