Christopher Williams: A look at our beautiful, beautiful world

Christopher Williams is an American concept artist who has made a name for a photographer of our "beautiful modern life"

With the images of our supposedly so beautiful reality, Christopher Williams is currently in the world's best list of art. To make it very clear again: two or three coaches full, and they have all the artists of the world together, whose work is even more better known in public than the oeuvre of the mocking beauty photographer -this is a brand, who wants to be considered an art connoisseur.

Also because Williams has been with the ranking list higher and higher for years. In the past 10 years it has climbed from 450+ to the current rank 201, an improvement of 55 %. Interesting/admiration, this means that Williams fans have more than doubled in around a decade. Andy Warhol in the foreseeable future .

And that as a photographer , some underpaid photographers would give several top motifs for the secret that is behind the steady ascent.

A hype about William's 60th birthday could be an explanation because it was celebrated in 2016 and the appreciation of art is mysterious connection with the aging and death of artists. Not here, 60 is still too young and Williams constantly exhibits anyway, there was no hype:

Williams showed his art in 2004, 2005, 2006 in 8 solo exhibitions , 2014, 2015, 2016 there were 7; Around 2006 there were 31 group exhibitions around 2016 34.

Does the ascent have to do with a generally increased interest in art? Interest in art in general or in the kind of art that Williams has made?

The general interest in art has actually increased noticeably since the turn of the millennium, because the networking of the world began at this time. Even if we do not make it aware of it every day: in the last millennium, including the last century, the world of the individual was strictly regional, limited to the surrounding group of people.

Whether medieval village city community or modern, not quite as nationally restricted community-(also) in terms of art, one stayed largely among themselves; The admired artist was a German, Italian, American and when it came up (... oh, something exotic but too!) Maybe just an African artist.

Today it is still German, Italian, American and African artists - but networking in the cultural field has always been close to the heels; The information that makes it easier for the first time brought about art and billions of people from the Internet, whether as an object of regular exhibitions or as a merchandise.

While artificial presentation and art trade took place almost exclusively in a few large art centers in front of us, there were now countless new artists; And it would certainly be interesting to analyze whether these new interested parties are responsible for an increasing popularity of artists who present small to normal-format living room works of art instead of tons of installations (for Documenta, the Biennale of Venice, the Art Cologne ...).

Perhaps Williams is one of the artists who have disproportionately gained awareness through the new art clientele for other reasons, e.g. B. because a large part of the new art audience shares dark skin color

Perhaps his climb also has to do with a course correction on the art market : The photography , which made the first advances towards artistic photography and yet until recently the heights of the art of art was not allowed to share with the crafting artists, has finally been recognized as art for about the turn of the millennium.

“beautiful art” created in the creative process already dissolved from the artisanal art, which was founded at the skill of the 18th century):

The carpenter with artistic ambitions became an artist who works with wood, wood carving artists and chainsaw artists and timber artists, the tiler with a special gifted gifted to the mosaic artist ... until a few decades ago, no artistic quality of his "illustrations" was granted, even if he had worked on a very specific picture on film.

Fortunately, that changes, and for a rather long time it has been possible for individual photo artists to be accepted as an artist. If the image of famous exceptional phenomena towards general acceptance of photo art and the female photo artists (and the rest of the female artists in the world) were at least surprised by a little approach equality in the payment of art, the world would be a bit more satisfied ...

A "recipe for the rise of photo artists" cannot be generated from all of this; The prerequisite is that the photo artist enriches the world with his work, as Christopher Williams's photo art does:

Art by Christopher Williams

The title of his first major retrospective , "Christopher Williams: The Production Line of Happiness" (July 27-November 2, 2014, Moma New York), does well advertise the most important characteristic of Williams art: their seductive potential .

Christopher Williams borrowed the title of the exhibition from a line of text from a documentary Jean-Luc Godards. An amateur filmmaker compares his daily job as a factory worker with his hobby , processing of self -made films from the Swiss landscape , and sees the latter as a "Production Line of Happiness" (assembly line of bliss).

However, Williams does not refer landscape photography , but photography as a mass phenomenon of consumer culture : Often it is not just about the illustration, but the picture makes a rather unspectacular product only on the customer dream; The positive experiences that are waiting when buying the product are also “made”. In addition to the emptiness that usually shapes the life of the typical consumer junkies, these expectations of positive experiences with the dream product are the most proven buying triggers.

The perfect results producing household assistant "Gewelum" brings perfect purity at least into a sub -area of ​​life: Bildlink

"Model #105m" manages to radiate beauty as well as after a week of styling, and absolute bliss (as only conveying the product used) at the same time: Bildlink .

"Full nut, yogurt, full peanut, white full of nut, marzipan and cappuccino" in chocolate "knight sports" , as stacked in the picture and then carved on a train, guarantees the absolute chocolate wound: Bildlink .

The world is beautiful, and it is very well worth keeping out for the apples, among which there is not a single one in which the worm is: "Bergische Bauernscheune, Junkersholz, Leichlingen, September 29th, 2009" , Bildlink .

But again only appearance, the disappointment is inevitable:

The name of the dishwasher (guessum = printing error) already indicates that the "sham helper" rarely produces a ready -to -cab, clean load of dishes as in the photo. Most of the time, even after the laundry, dishwasher or food residues still stick; And until the laundry is started, the dishwasher creates rich microbes in some single household, which shout the usually not huge living area in musty stench for days.

In general, the dishwasher in the single household, up to a monthly content for a device that frees the single from the insane work every day, two plates, a cup and a glass (+ a couple of bowls, a pot, a pan, when the single boils), to save 5 minutes every day ... which it does not save at all:

A single 2825 min* worked to develop the purchase price alone and could have been washed up 565 days for 5 minutes instead. Further time or further money to work through working hours goes for choosing, buying, setting up, connecting the dishwasher, the daily granting and clearing up, the intermediate flushing, if it stinks too much, the purchase and payment of special salt, rinse aid and 17-in-one dish flush (which do not clean up the apartment, iron, although you should actually do it at this purchase price and Never should smell from a very short distance because you then throw the poison out of the apartment), purchase and use of calgon and Co., order, supervision and payment of a repair company if the dishwasher does the gräsche on time despite the calgon and Co.

The smile of the grace with the towel turban is no longer returned by the viewer when he recognizes the true nature of this anthropological miracle: in perfect photoshop use as a "all-world model" , which will probably satisfy the feeling of beauty of any ethnicity of our planet ...

If this is the perfect model for almost all, all people could look like this at some point, 7, 8, 10 billion "grace with a towel" + male, transsexual and previously required gender counterparts-aaaarrggh!

“Rittersport” chocolate can undoubtedly convey absolute chocolate corners. With the many people who have no idea about nutrition or food and have no desire to take care of more, follow the chocolate enjoyment. The diet-life-sustainable lifestyle, which compares chocolate corners with movement and "narrow food"-is almost only known as an abbreviation for "reduction diet", the general effects of which have been scientifically researched scientifically: It is a kind of metabolic training program "to the greatest possible energy generation" (colloquially known as a yo-yo effect).

Every special form of reduction diet presents its own catalog of permitted foods, with a more mysterious than scientific origin. This can result in a chocolate diet because journalists want to criticize the science company ( www.spiegel.de/ ) or because a person who is "known enough to write books" wants to solve their weight problems with kitchen psychology ( the chocolate diet: finally slim with pleasure (link to Amazon) ). This does not change the energy content of chocolate.

Purely physically (material implementation by the body) is only interested in this energy content; If the energy supply is higher than the energy consumption, the excess of the forward-looking system body is saved as a (fat) reserve.

There is no media statement about why William's "knight sports" chocolate or these varieties chose knight sports. He probably doesn't know himself, but Williams started his professorship in Düsseldorf shortly before the chocolate picture was created-so it is not entirely absurd to suspect that when the mass genetics were exposed to the chocolate, he had his many tons of equal compatriots in view and only chose "knight sports" because the variety in German trade is disproportionately represented.

Milka chocolate from his American homeland would have been the right choice: with “Milka” and others of its 200 brands, the power of Heinz Company also occupies a top position on the German market, but the products do not have the best reputation due to the frequent use of preservatives and dyes and elaborate giant packaging ( www.codecheck.info/ ). Ritter sports, a German family business with a good 100 years of tradition, turns chocolate out of the necessary components of sugar, cocoa, milk and butter (possibly nuts, lecithin, natural aromas), so chocolate lust is satisfied faster.

There is no worm in the apples because they are injected up to 30 times with pesticides per season - which destroys (death -safe) worm larvae, also determines the majority of the nutrients and also a couple of people suffering from the "disease industrial agriculture" (in France, Parkinson is already recognized as an occupational disease of farmers).

Williams certainly do not expect that when looking at the photos, they "give their thoughts of the monkey as sugar" as it happened; But he is definitely happy about every art lover who is "mentally woken up" by looking at his and other art so far that he begins to question the things depicted and other things depicted every day.

With a critical attitude, everyone depends on the fact that the dishwasher in the mini household deserves a top position in terms of "consumption disruption"; Some think even further and also banish the stove from their kitchen, the cooking space of which can meet the needs of a large family, and 12 to 20 electrical helpers who do not do what the product description promises. Results in newly usable living space, e.g. B. for a large table to sit with people and talk, a piece of new life, stimulated by a bit of attention that was stimulated by a bit of art ...

Christopher William's artistic development shows how he gradually looked at increasingly carefully:

At the time of this (first) retrospective, Christopher Williams has already had an impressive 35-year career. His flirt with photography started early (presumably natural when you were born and grown up in Los Angeles), the flirt initially included the format and the presentation.

"Untitled (Cafes-Intimate Grouping)" from 1982-83 plays very attractive as they can see on MoMA.org) .

(Perhaps also of natural at the hometown) Christopher Williams quickly discovered his special interest in the products of the (luxury) consumer world and their buyers.

"Young Hee Kim and Gyung-Hwa Han, Ravenswood Apartments, Los Angeles, January 24, 1992" , Kurzelinks.de/P3HL , shows customers of this (luxury) consumer world :

Two wealthy young women who can afford an apartment in one of the most expensive living environments in Los Angeles; "The Ravenswood" is a historic Art Deco building that was built in 1930 by Paramount Pictures and z. B. Mae West and Ava Gardner housed.

The beautiful house has been one of the historical cultural monuments of LA and is located in the Hancock Park district, built around a private golf club in the 1920s. The terrain is only moderately densely populated, the buildings architecturally very different and characteristic, which is shaped by around 10,000 people wealthy, and for the most part no longer young. A "rich village" in which the two young Asian women like hairstyle, make -up, clothing and jewelry fit perfectly.

At first glance it has itself. The exhibition visitor, who looks at the fleeting to normal intensely, registers two good -looking young women, which are blessed with material goods richly, at a table (who live in the Ravenswood if he knows it).

Anyone who studies the photo more closely sees two young women who go very far in their adaptation, up to contact lenses that are supposed to turn the beautiful deep-brown eyes into blue USA (does not quite work, but it becomes deep blue to dark blue eyes in front of the dark background, but they probably impair the overall picture of the aesthetic beauty of the carriers much less than it would have done light blue eyes).

When the viewer has come so far, he is also ready for the riddle that the artist gives up with the picture : Why did the left woman remove a contact lens and thus destroy the dark blue twin view?

Apart from that, he sees two young people who are obviously stone (stone -rich men, but as soon as he thinks that, he also thinks that this assumption is politically incorrect), but mentally commute somewhere between nerve -wracking boredom and deep misfortune. The attentive viewer also sees two brides that he does not want to meet in the dark at night ...

In addition to dealing with the beautiful emptiness of modernity Christopher Williams dealt with the African continent , from 1996 he has a studio in Dakar, Senegal, in which works such as the following are created: Moma.org) .

He also makes Super 8 short films (the most important projects are being made from 1980 to the early 1990s), works with lithographs like this: "Untitled" , texts on art, Kassel, Germany, MoMA.ORG-> Williams (although Williams himself never on the documenta) and creates large photo series such as "For Example is nice (The World is nice (The World is Beautiful) ” , 1993–2001 and “ For Example: Dix-Huit Leçons Sur La Société industrial (Eighteen Lessons on Industrial Society) ” , 2003-Heute.

That Williams photos are not always as harmless as it looks, e.g. B. also Christopher William's book "Angola to Vietnam" , first publication in 1989.

We first see a slightly ironic homage to one of the most famous books from the history of photography: Karl Blossfeldt, "Urorforms of Art" , published by Ernst Wasmuth in 1928 in Berlin. The photographer Karl Blossfeldt, born in 1865, is known in the photo history as a representative of the "new objectivity" .

Towards the end of the Weimar Republic, he became famous by two illustrated books with strict formal plant photographs . "Primal forms of art" is the first volume, and these archetypes saw Blossfeldt in the plants that the illustrated book on page shows in black and white close -ups - an impressive gallery of plant sculptures presented the trained sculptor and models with the passion for photography at the time, in Berlin the book was immediately a sensation.

Today it is interesting again, but in the 1980s, at the climax of the first affordable snap machines, everyone's possible colorful picture euphoria, even for studied species, no topic in which the toothed rolled up with awe.

For an American concept artist of the 1956 year of birth, the merciless of the old master of past generations was quite obvious, many of the then viewers amused royally about William's response to Blossfeldt's "petrified nature": Williams photographed glass models from the Botanical Museum of Harvard University in exactly the same style as Blossfeldt's exponates and left the plants that were recorded. become (silicate) rock.

Many recipients completely escaped that Williams were not only about joke over Blossfeldt, but that in the 27-part work he only depicted plants from countries in which political murder had been committed in series in the past decade ...

A knight's spur from Blossfeldt

A tuft herb

A beach thistle

There is a inexpensive (and absolutely its price values) from the photos from the two Blossfeldt books with vegetable photographs (the second appeared shortly before the Fields ) .

"Vietnam" from 1989 shows Blaschka Model 272, from 1892, Genus no. 8594, the Cucurbitaceae family, Art Luffa Cylindrica, Gelatin Silver Print, 28 x 35.5 cm: MoMA.org -> Williams -> Vietnam .

"Blaschka Model" chosen by Christopher Williams as a symbol for "Vietnam" is a shot for everyone who knows nothing to do with a Blaschka Model: It is about glass models by father and son Blaschka, which between 1863 and 1936 made thousands of realistic glass displays of botanical and zoological motifs.

Father Leopold Blaschka developed the "glass pin" after training as a goldsmith and a glass blower, son Rudolph dealt intensively with the Flora Central Germany and the fauna of the Mediterranean, North and Baltic Sea.

Together, the Bohemian glassblowers created the most magical and yet the most precise glass model series of marine animals and plants that the world has ever seen. Blaschka models were shipped into the entire civilized world at that time; As is the case with glass, there are only almost 1,000 of several 1,000 models.

You can view images of the 289 exhibits at the Corning Museum of Glass , Corning, NY 14830, USA or at CMOG.ORG/COLCTION (Search: Blaschka), in Berlin there are 32 "real Blaschkas" such as this chic trees: Bildlink , in the Museum of Natural History and in the Zoological teaching collection of the Humboldt University in Berlin .

Harvard Museum of Natural History has the largest coherent glass model collection ; One of the most popular attractions at Havard University, which attracts over 10,000 visitors annually (to look at at HMNH.HARVARD.EDU/GLASS-FLOWERS ).

Back to Christopher Williams (whose art was only presented here in part, so there is still a lot to discover).

Christopher Williams way to art

Christopher Williams was born in Los Angeles, California (USA) in 1956, and almost in the middle of the film and television industry, which formed his future artistic production. His grandfather and father worked in Hollywood as "Special Effects Artists" and were often accompanied by the young Christopher to work. B. an encounter by Christopher Williams with the filmmaker Oskar Fischinger , who showed him flip books and abstract animated films.

Christopher Williams stayed away from the film and studied art. In the 1970s and early 1980s at the California Institute of Arts in Valencia at the gates of LA, BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) 1979, MFA (Master of Fine Arts) 1981 . B. Michael Asher, John Baldessari and Douglas Huebler.

Christopher Williams: public life, exhibitions, awards

Immediately after completing his studies, in 1982, William's first solo exhibition in the Jancar-Kuhlenschmidt-Gallery in Los Angeles. In this style it continued, with about 10 exhibitions per year, across all centers of the art world.

So far (April 2017) Christopher Williams can look back at around 300 public exhibitions, a good 50 individual exhibitions and around 250 group exhibitions. 92 of them in the USA, 64 in Germany, 21 in France, 18 in Austria and 12 in England; The remaining exhibitions in the other countries in the world that have important plastics in the area of ​​“contemporary art”.

Christopher William's art is always accessible in the following public art collections:

• Germany : Haubrok Berlin Collection, Museum Ludwig Cologne, Kuntraum Grässlin St. Georgen
• Italy : Mambo Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Bologna
• Canada : Carleton University Art Gallery Ottawa, on
• Mexico : Museo Jumex, Mexico City
• Austria : Museum Modern Art Foundation Ludwig (Mumok), Vienna
• Switzerland : Photo Museum Winterthur, UBS Art Collection Zurich
• United Kingdom : Tate Britain, London
• USA : Hammer Museum + Moca Grand Avenue, Los Angeles CA, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC

• In 2005 Williams received the Guggenheim Fellowship from John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
• In 2005 and 2006 he received grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in order to work freely and to be able to take part in competitions.
• In 2014, the Paris Photo - Aperture Foundation Photobook Awards "Photography Catalog of the Year" Christopher Williams, for the catalog of the exhibition "The Production Line of Happiness" and "Christopher Williams: Printed in Germany".

Christopher William's work today and the future

Christopher Williams has developed into one of the leading concept artists of his generation , who with the means of photography presented a large and a concise oeuvre. He brings his comprehensive knowledge of the history of photography and film, architecture and design in order to formulate a criticism of late capitalist society (more next to than behind the camera) in a clear, ironic visual language, in which no images can be reduced to its superficial content.

Since 2008 he has been teaching as a professor of photography at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, but Christopher Williams continues to work, his art is still being exhibited all over the world, soon in Brussels and in London:

• From April 20, 2017, the exhibition "Le Musée Absent" will run in the Wiels Center for Contemporary Art in Brussels, where works by Christopher Williams alongside art by Francis Aleld, Marcel Broodthaers, Marlene Dumas, Jimmie Durham, Jana Euler, Ellen Gallagher, Isa Genzken , Thomas Hirschhorn, Carsten Höller, Martin Kippenberger, , Lucy McKenzie, Oscar Murillo, Felix Nussbaum, Gerhard Richter , Wolfgang Tillmans , Rosemarie Trockel , Luc Tuymans, Peter Wächtler and others can be visited.
• The solo exhibition "Christopher Williams-Open Letter: The Family Drama Refunctioned will run until 20. May 2017?" In the David Zwirner Gallery, London.

Christopher Williams teaches his students art to generate illusions precisely using photo technology; What there is to consider, e.g. B. the complete title of "Gewelum":

"Course, Agfa Color (Oversaturated), Camera: Robertson Process Model 31 580 Serial #F97-116, LENS: APO Nikkor 455 mm stopped down to F90,
Lighting: 16,000 Watts Tungsten 3200 degrees Kelvin, film: Kodak Plus-X Pan ASA 125, Kodak Pan Masking And Color Correction, Film Developer: Kodak HC 110 Dilution B (1: 7), Used @ 68 Degrees Fahrenheit, Exposure and Development Times (in Minutes):, Exposure Development, Red Filter Kodak Wratten PM25 4'40, Green Filter Kodak Wratten PM61 10'20 3'30, Blue Filter Kodak Wratten PM47B 7'00 7'00,
Paper: Fujicolor Crystal Archive Type C Glossy, Chemistry: Kodak Ra-4, Processor: Tray, Exposure and Developement Times (in Seconds), Exposure Development Red Filter Kodak Wratten #99 15'5 1'10 @ 92 Degrees Fahrenheit, Blue Filter Kodak Wratten #9830'5, October 7, 2000 "

Only the artist himself is not mentioned what belongs to the "concept of the concept artist": Christopher Williams hardly photographs himself, but always has the perfect production in the visual language of the advertising of professional photo studios, only with a small, decisive mistake.

Williams teaches his students the art of creating completed illusions so that they can become able to question and destroy the illusions.

Christopher Williams can also give this ability to the attentive viewers of his art into the future: the exact second glance that reveals what is hidden behind the beautiful smooth surface.

In times of fake news and dwindling trust in the media as the professions as the public, no methods of approaching art, but techniques that can help democracies to survive ...

Lina cream

Passionate author with lively art interest

www.kunstplaza.de