Photograph, colour, chromogenic print, on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/andreas-gursky-2349" aria-label="More by Andreas Gursky" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Andreas Gursky</a>
Centre Georges Pompidou
Presented by Herzog and de Meuron, architects of Tate Modern 2000
adults
art and craft
art gallery
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
countries and continents
emotions, concepts and ideas
exhibition
figure
formal qualities
France
furnishings
interiors
leisure and pastimes
objects
Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou
people
photographic
places
public and municipal
table
<p><i>Centre Georges Pompidou</i> was produced in a small size (114 x 699 mm) in an edition of sixty for <i>Parkett</i>, the Swiss art journal. The print owned by Tate, however, is one of two artist’s proofs of the work on a much larger scale. The photograph depicts the mezzanine exhibition hall at the Centre Pompidou in Paris during an exhibition of the work of architects Herzog &amp; de Meuron in 1995. Herzog &amp; de Meuron were the architects of Tate Modern. In 2000, the year the gallery opened to the public, they presented this print to the Collection.</p>
paper print photograph colour chromogenic
12 May 2000 – 2 December 2001
2001-12-02
12 May 2000 – 3 December 2001
2001-12-03
2000-05-12
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2000-05-12
Level 1 Concourse Display
Collection based display
Centre Georges Pompidou
image: 1376 × 2630 mm
Presented by Herzog and de Meuron, architects of Tate Modern 2000
<p><i>Centre Georges Pompidou</i> was produced in a small size (114 x 699 mm) in an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edition" title="Glossary definition for 'Edition'"><span>edition</span></a> of sixty for <i>Parkett</i>, the Swiss art journal. The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>print</span></a> owned by Tate, however, is one of two artist’s proofs of the work on a much larger scale. The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photograph</span></a> depicts the mezzanine exhibition hall at the Centre Pompidou in Paris during an exhibition of the work of architects Herzog &amp; de Meuron in 1995. Herzog &amp; de Meuron were the architects of Tate Modern. In 2000, the year the gallery opened to the public, they presented this print to the Collection. 
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<br/>In the foreground a long display table traverses the width of the image, emphasising the horizontality of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/picture-plane" title="Glossary definition for 'Picture plane'"><span>picture plane</span></a>. Behind it a series of parallel display tables recedes into the distance. The protective Perspex covering the displayed documents renders the surface of the tables reflective of parallel rows of fluorescent light tubes above. The strip lights and exposed ventilation shafts on the ceiling of the exhibition hall echo the linear placement of the long tables, reinforcing the horizontal focus and deep single-point <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/perspective" title="Glossary definition for 'Perspective'"><span>perspective</span></a> of the image. Visitors to the exhibition stand over the vitrines and look at architectural models displayed on low level plinths. The neutral colours of the industrial carpet and display cases are broken by flashes of yellow and red in the clothing of the museum visitors.
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<br/>Between 1981 and 1986 Gursky studied fine art photography under Bernd and Hilla Becher (born 1931 and 1934 respectively) in the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, where his fellow students included Thomas Ruff (born 1958) and Candida Höfer (born 1944). Since completing his studies, Gursky has made work that falls within several broad themes, including work, leisure, <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a> and architecture. In the 1990s he made a series of photographs in factories that highlighted the unique beauty of the forms and patterns of industrial machinery. <i>Centre Georges Pompidou</i> mimics some of the effects of these factory pictures. The industrial architecture of the Centre Pompidou with its exposed fittings recalls a factory interior. The Herzog &amp; de Meuron exhibition, designed by Swiss artist Remy Zaugg (born 1943), is composed of simple, utilitarian forms reminiscent of a production line. The exhibition visitors, like the workers in Gursky’s factory pictures, are viewed not as individuals but rather as elements in the overall <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a>.
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<br/>The image also relates to other photographs by Gursky taken in museums and galleries. These include <i>Turner Collection</i>, 1995 and <i>Untitled VI</i>, 1997, which show, respectively, a series of landscapes by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) in the Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain) and <i>One (Number 31, 1950)</i>, 1950 by Jackson Pollock (1912-56) at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. <i>Centre Georges Pompidou</i> is unique in Gursky’s depiction of art museums in that it includes visitors in a gallery space. In this respect it resembles photographs of museum-goers by his contemporary Thomas Struth (born 1954; see <i>National Gallery I, London 1989</i>, 1989, Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/struth-national-gallery-i-london-1989-p77661" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P77661</span></a>).
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<br/><b>Further reading:</b>
<br/>Peter Galassi, <i>Andreas Gursky</i>, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2001.
<br/>Andreas Gursky, Veit Görner and Annelie Lütgens, <i>Andreas Gursky: Fotografien 1994-1998</i>, exhibition catalogue, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 1998, reproduced p.51 in colour.
<br/>Fiona Bradley, Greg Hilty and Lewis Biggs, <i>Andreas Gursky: Images</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery Liverpool, 1995, reproduced p.13 in colour.
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<br/>Rachel Taylor
<br/>February 2004</p>

Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
adults art and craft art gallery cities, towns, villages (non-UK) countries and continents emotions, concepts and ideas exhibition figure formal qualities France furnishings interiors leisure and pastimes objects Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou people photographic places public and municipal table