Günther Förg
Uffizio Postale, Roma
1982–85
1 / 1
Much of Günther Förg’s photographic work explores the interrelation of architecture, ideology, and power in shaping the atmosphere of a city and the character of its inhabitants. In "Uffizio Postale, Roma" the artist focuses on a detail of the monumental postal building constructed in Mussolini-era Rome in 1933–35, which functioned as an Italian nationalistic symbol of fascist power. With his greatly enlarged photograph, Förg both illustrates and dismantles fascist aesthetics, investigating how architectural form can aestheticize political ideologies and how he might counter such aesthetics through techniques of cropping, enlarging, and framing. While the photograph’s monumentality replicates the effects of fascist architecture, by presenting a fragment of the building’s side facade Förg undercuts its intentionally overwhelming character as well as its overall symmetry and uniformity. Additionally, the calculated use of reflective glass on the surface of the photograph makes it impossible for viewers to see the work without seeing themselves in the image—a strategy that further counters the auratic effect of the architecture.
[Exhibition brochure text, 2014]
-
Artist
Günther Förg
(German, 1952–2013)
- Title Uffizio Postale, Roma
- Date 1982–85
- Medium Black-and-white photograph
- Edition description 1/1
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Dimensions
framed | 110 15/16 x 51 13/16 in.
unframed | 105 5/8 x 46 9/16 in.
- Credit line University purchase, Charles H. Yalem Art Fund, 2001
- Object number WU 2001.0011
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Work type
photograph
Encountering the City: The Urban Experience in Contemporary Art
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/12/2014 - 01/04/2015
Ways of Seeing the City
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/14/2012 - 01/07/2013
Contemporary German Art: Recent Acquisitions
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/17/2003 - 04/20/2003
Until November 29, 2001
[with Springer & Winckler Kunsthandel GMBH (1991–), Berlin]
November 29, 2001–
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, purchase from the above, Charles H. Yalem Art Fund [1]
Notes:
[1]
WU 2001.0011 object file, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis.
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