The Kaiserring, or Goslar Award for Modern Art, is one of the most renowned art prizes in Germany. Tillmans, a former Turner Prize winner, is the 2018 recipient for his photography "between poetry and disillusionment."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/W. Seidel
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Wolfgang Tillmans: 'Between poetry and disillusionment'
Lately focused on Brexit, the refugee crisis and AfD's rise, the art of Wolfgang Tillmans is being honored with the 2018 Goslar Award and features in a major New Yorker profile. A look back on his Tate London show.
Image: picture-alliance/Captital Pictures
Opposites attract
War, gay rights and the refugee crisis — these are all subjects referenced in Wolfgang Tillmans' art. The photographer makes his views public and shares his political opinion. But not all of his work is serious. He also knows how to take a lighthearted look at everyday life — as he does in these images, where he makes fun of today's design standards.
Image: picture-alliance/Captital Pictures
Monochrome poetry
Some of Tillmans' images abide by "less is more" as a guideline, like this masterpiece in monochrome hues. Wolfgang Tillmans likes experimenting with colors and shapes, making his photography often highly poetic.
Other work by Tillmans are busy, like this image of a market in Africa. His carefully composed representation of reality can seem almost staged or painted. The artist's extensive travels have expanded his horizons - and brought him many new photographic motifs.
Image: picture-alliance/Captital Pictures
Life's simple pleasures
Like many of Tillmans' pictures, this one also captures the joy of the moment. Two young men by the names of Juan Paplo and Karl are enjoying their cigarettes and relaxing in a forest while chatting with each other.
Image: Wolfgang Tillmans
Brimming with life
Life can be found in unexpected placed — even between dusty cobblestones. The German artist (pictured) focuses on nature taking back what belongs to it in some of his works. In its 2017 Tate Modern exhibition celebrated Tillmans as one of the most exciting artists of our time. The Turner Prize winner will also be receiving the international art award of the city of Goslar on September 28.
Image: picture-alliance/JOR/Captital Pictures
Protesting Brexit
Wolfgang Tillmans is known for getting involved in current issues. Most recently, he designed a series of posters against Britain's exit from the European Union. The combination of poetry and politics is characteristic of his work.
Image: Getty Images/J. Spicer
Profane and profound
An intersection somewhere in the urban jungle of London appears to upset Wolfgang Tillmans. His picture "Scheiss Häuser" expresses his disdain towards skyrocketing construction across London and elsewhere, making cityscapes increasingly generic and soulless. The title, profane as it may be, means "f***ing houses."
Image: Wolfgang Tillmans
Fly on a crustacean
The title of this image, highlighting an open lobster with a fly resting on top, is "Astro Crusto." This colorful, modern still life is a reminder that, in the end, humankind can't have control over life and death.
Image: Wolfgang Tillmans
A craftsman and an artist
Wolfgang Tillmans plays with focus in this image. The subject of his composition: a sheet of paper, turned onto itself. In his drive to create striking images, Tillmans never compromises or sacrifices the craft of photography for the perfect shot. This exhibition was on show at the Tate Modern in 2017.
Image: Wolfgang Tillmans
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Tillmans is one of the most important contemporary artists of his generation. Having held solo exhibitions in major museums around the world, including the London Tate Modern and the Beyeler Foundation museum in Basel, he is known above all for his large format photographs that famously depicted a generation's coming of age in the 1990s .
The jury awards the German artist the Goslar Award for his remarkably multi-layered life's work: "Analyzing the medium of photography, exploring its boundaries, and balancing poetry and disillusionment, make Wolfgang Tillmans one of the most important photographers of our time," the jury said.
Wolfgang Tillmans in his London studioImage: Birgit Kleber
Wolfgang Tillmans was born in 1968 in Remscheid, a small Rhineland town, and already as a teenager experimented with collages from magazines and other materials. After a period in Hamburg, where he worked as a photographer for local culture magazines, he moved to England and studied at the Bournemouth and Pool College of Art and Design from 1990 to 1992.
Chronicler of his generation
With his camera, Tillmans set out to document 90s youth culture ranging from the techno clubs and the Love Parade to unique nudes of his mostly male friends that garnered him international renown.
He later produced photographic portraits of supermodels like Kate Moss, with his "Kate Moss with broccoli" iconically bridging the worlds of art and fashion.
In 2000 he was the first photographer and non-British artist to be awarded the Turner Prize, the UK's top art award.
In addition to his art, Tillmans is also a successful DJ, musician and music producer, releasing in 2016 his own album, titled Fragile. In 2006, while living in London, he founded the non-profit exhibition space "Between Bridges," which he reopened in 2014 in Berlin after returning to the city to live. He now divides his time between London and Berlin.
Wolfgang Tillmans has also been a member of the Berlin Academy of the Arts since 2012, and was inducted into the British Royal Academy of Arts in 2013. The 2018 recipient of the Goslar Award for Modern Art follows in the footsteps of international artists such as Isa Genzken, Olafur Eliasson, David Lynch and Andreas Gursky.
