Juergen Teller: Paradis
10 September – 17 October 2009
540 West 26th Street, New York
Opening reception: Thursday, 10 September 6 - 8 PM
For his fifth exhibition at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, Juergen Teller will present an exhibition entitled Paradis, on view at the 540 West 26th Street location. The photographs were originally commissioned for the French magazine, Paradis, and will appear in a leather bound limited edition book available at the end of September 2009.
Blurring the distinction between his commercial and non-commercial work, Teller takes a story-telling approach to this series, in which he revisits two of his previous subjects – Charlotte Rampling and Raquel Zimmermann. Shot alone one evening at the Musee du Louvre in Paris, this nude study features large-scale photographs of the two women as they move amongst the masterpieces housed in the museum and captures the intimacy between photographer and subject. The women's lack of vanity is revealed as they are shot at an uncomfortable proximity, blending their bodies with Classical statues and standing before Leonardo's Mona Lisa. Teller removes the artifice between photographer and subject, leaving only the purity of each image, and unlike the sculptures in the museum's collection, his photographs do not present a standard of beauty but are more akin to a tribute to women and the human form.
Born in Germany, Juergen Teller has lived and worked in London for 20 years. Recent solo exhibitions include Teller at the Frans Hals Museum in The Netherlands in 2009, Awailable at Inverleith House in Edinburgh in 2007 and Do You Know What I Mean at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris in 2006. He has been included in important exhibitions at the Tate Modern (Street & Studio), Haus der Kunst (Click Double Click) and the 52nd International Venice Biennale, Ukrainian Pavilion (A Poem about an Inland Sea). Teller was the recipient of the Citibank Photography Prize 2003 and has published numerous books of his work with Steidl including Tracht, Go-Sees, Märchenstüberl, Zwei Schäuferle mit Kloß und eine Kinderportion Schnitzel mit Pommes Frites, Ohne Titel, Louis XV, and Nürnberg. Recently, Steidl have published a monograph chronicling an eleven-year collaboration between Juergen Teller and Marc Jacobs.
The exhibition will be on view from 10 September – 17 October 2009 at 540 West 26th Street, New York City. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 10AM – 6PM. For more information, please contact Stephanie Smith at the gallery at 212 255 2923 Stephanie@LehmannMaupin.com or visit www.LehmannMaupin.com
