The Story Behind Rhine II
The first in a series of posts exploring the background stories behind some of the most expensive photographs ever sold at auction. Not only exploring the concept behind the image but the print itself.
As the most expensive photograph ever sold at auction it is only fitting that this series should begin with Andreas Gursky’s Rhine II, which sold in November 2011 at Christie’s ‘Post-War Contemporary Evening Sale’ in New York for $4.3 million.
Rhine II is a straight photographic portrayal of a section of the German river flanked either side by green grass an a large expanse of grey sky above. The photograph is stark with the grass, river and sky dividing sections of the image like a banal tricolour flag. Like most of Gursky’s large scale works, the image was captured on a large format analogue camera before being edited digitally in post-production, it was here that Gursky removed street furniture that littered the scene in an attempt to create the image he had longed hoped to achieve.
“There is a particular place with a view over the Rhine which has somehow always fascinated me, but it didn’t suffice for a picture as it basically constituted only part of a picture.” He explained in Annelie Lutgens’ Shrines and Ornaments: A Look into the Display Cabinet
“I carried this idea for a picture around with me for a year and a half and thought about whether I ought perhaps to change my viewpoint. … In the end I decided to digitalize the pictures and leave out the elements that bothered me”
The result is a contemporary view of a familiar landscape, one that is uniquely Gursky’s, edited to his imagination. Christie’s auction catalogue described the piece as ‘Perfected, straightened, and heightened, Rhein II is also a reflection of the effect contemporary man has had on his environment.’ It is also a post-modern mix of methods, combining analogue photography with digital production.
At 73 by 143 inches, the chromogenic print is an extremely large-scale piece, first exhibited in 2001 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art after being purchased from Galerie Monika Spruth in Cologne by a ‘distinguished private German collector’. The print is the first work from an edition of six where only two are privately held, the four others are housed in the MoMA, Tate Modern, Pinakothek der Moderne and Glenstone (Potomac) – illustrating the high-end value of the work.
The Rhine II isn’t the only Rhine photograph of Gursky’s to sell well at auction, Rhine (1) sold at Phillips New York in May 2013 for $1.9m – executed four years earlier, and is one of twelve prints by the artist to feature in the top 50 most expensive photographs to sell at auction.
Find out more about Andreas Gursky in this quick profile, or read the full list of the top 50 Most Expensive Photographs To Sell At Auction in the Photography At Auction Digest.