Thomas Demand
(German, born 1964)
Biography
Thomas Demand is a German Conceptual artist known for his illusionistic photographs of intricate, three-dimensional models sculpted entirely from paper. Though Demand titles his works with unassuming, descriptive names like Scheune (Barn), the places he reconstructs are often based on politically or historically significant locations—such as the hotel room in which L. Ron Hubbard wrote Dianetics, or a kitchen in the compound where Saddam Hussein was captured. The uniform material and slight flaws of the image’s miniature objects are usually the only way a viewer encountering Demand’s photographs up close may even notice that scene is, in fact, made of paper. Born in 1964 in Munich, Germany, he went on to study sculpture with Fritz Schwegler at the Künstakademie Düsseldorf, where he encountered the photographers Bern and Hilla Becher along with some of their most noted pupils, Andreas Gursky and Candida Höfer. Demand always destroys his models after he photographs them, creating a further air of mystery to his practice. His work can found in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Tate Gallery in London, among others. Demand lives and works between Los Angeles, CA and Berlin, Germany.
Thomas Demand
(359 results)
.jpg "Detail XII (Bundestag), 2009")
.jpg "FLARE (Detail #18, 19), 2002")
English (US)
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