WOLFGANG TILLMANS, (B. 1968)

JAL II, 2016

JAL II, 2016

inkjet print

78 3/4 x 57 1/8 in.
200 x 145 cm.

This work is number one from the edition of one, plus one artist's proof.

Provenance
Maureen Paley, London
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Literature
Wolfgang Tillmans, Wolfgang Tillmans Four Books (Wolfgang Tillmans: Burg), Taschen, 2020, n.p., illustrated

"Travel also promises a sense of unfettered possibility – of ungroundedness – that crystallizes in the idea of flight." - David Deitcher (Wolfgang Tillmans and David Deitcher, "Wolfgang Tillmans: Burg," Taschen, 2020)

Revisiting past subject matter and previous bodies of work is essential to Wolfgang Tillmans' practice., Through repetition and reengagement, Tillmans challenges hierarchical mechanisms of viewing and chronological taxonomies. In the present lot, Tillmans draws nearly exact compositional parallels to his 1997 photograph JAL with his abstraction of the engine and wings of a jet plane in flight.

In 2018 and 2020, Tillmans had a monumental large-scale solo show at both IMMA in Dublin and WIELS in Brussels. In this major retrospective (taking place jointly in the two venues), entitled Rebuilding the Future (in Dublin) and Today is the First Day (in Brussels), the exhibition takes on no order; melding photos from different eras of Tillmans' career and presenting his work in new ways that evade reading the images in a single context. In conversation with Beatrix Ruf, Tillmans asks himself, "How does the world appear twenty years after I've begun to form a picture of it? Can there be a 'new' view of it? And 'new' also in the sense of greatly expanded political and economic shifts of recent years, and technical advancements, have considerably altered the world's appearance" ("Wolfgang Tillmans: Neue Welt," Taschen, 2020) Recognized as one of the most important living photographers today, Tillmans' significant contributions to image-making simultaneously embrace ephemeral lived experiences while cementing their emotional renaissance.

Living and working between London and Berlin, Wolfgang Tillmans has had numerous international solo exhibitions at institutions including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; the Tate, London; the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, with solo exhibitions set for 2022 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and at the Centre Pompidou, Paris in 2024. Tillmans is included in the permanent collections of The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Tate, London amongst many others. Tillmans is represented by Regen Projects, David Zwirner and Maureen Paley.