Few artists have shaped the scope of contemporary art and influenced a younger generation more than Wolfgang Tillmans. Since the early 1990s, his works have epitomized a new kind of subjectivity in photography, pairing intimacy and playfulness with social critique and the persistent questioning of existing values and hierarchies. Through his seamless integration of genres, subjects, techniques, and exhibition strategies, he has expanded conventional ways of approaching the medium and his practice continues to address the fundamental question of what it means to create pictures in an increasingly image-saturated world.

Born in 1968 in Remscheid, Germany, Wolfgang Tillmans studied at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design in Bournemouth, England from 1990 to 1992. In 2000, Tillmans was the first photographer and first non-British artist to receive the Turner Prize, an award given annually by Tate in London. In 2009, he received the Kulturpreis der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Photographie and was selected to serve as an Artist Trustee on the Board of Tate. He has been a member of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin since 2012, and was appointed a member of the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 2013. Tillmans was the recipient of the 2015 Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography. In 2014, the artist joined David Zwirner. In 2015, PCR marked the artist’s inaugural exhibition with the gallery at its West 19th Street location in New York.

Since the early 1990s, Tillmans’s work has been the subject of prominent solo exhibitions at international institutions, recently with a major survey that toured through South America. Opening in 2012 at the Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, the exhibition traveled to the Museo de Arte del Banco de la República, Bogotá; Museo de Arte de Lima; and the Museo de Artes Visuales, Santiago. This presentation was organized by the Serpentine Gallery, London, where it was first on view in 2010. In 2012, the Kunsthalle Zürich presented photographs from the artist’s latest body of work, Neue Welt, which was shown the following year at Les Rencontres d’Arles in France. Also in 2012, the Moderna Museet, Stockholm displayed a selection of works spanning twenty-five years; the show traveled to the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf in 2013. In 2015, a large-scale solo exhibition, Wolfgang Tillmans: Your Body is Yours, was presented at The National Museum of Art, Osaka. Also in 2015, Wolfgang Tillmans: Book for Architects, a two-channel video installation was on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, as well as a solo show of the artist’s work at the Dům Umění – Galerie Současného Umění České Budějovice, Czech Republic. In 2016, a solo show of the artist’s work was hosted by Museu Serralves, Porto.

In 2006, Tillmans’s first New York museum exhibition, titled Freedom from the Known, was hosted by P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City. On view later that year was his first American museum survey, consisting of approximately three hundred photographs, co-organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. It traveled to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. in 2007, followed by the Museo Tamayo, Mexico City in 2008. In 2003, his first mid-career retrospective, if one thing matters, everything matters, was presented at Tate Britain in London to much critical acclaim.

The artist has operated the non-profit exhibition space Between Bridges since 2006. First located in London until 2011, Between Bridges has exhibited a range of work by artists, including David Wojnarowicz, Ull Hohn, Charlotte Posenenske, and Charles Henri Ford. In January 2014, it reopened in Berlin with a solo show of work by Patrick Caulfield. From 2003 to 2009, Tillmans served as a professor at the Städelschule in Frankfurt.

Tillmans considers the printed page to be an important venue for his work. He is deeply involved in the publication of artist’s books and monographs, and regularly contributes to magazines. Recent publications which have been designed and edited by the artist include Neue Welt: Wolfgang Tillmans (Taschen, 2012); Wolfgang Tillmans: FESPA Digital / FRUIT LOGISTICA (Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2012); Wolfgang Tillmans: Abstract Pictures (Hatje Cantz, 2011); Wolfgang Tillmans: Lighter (Hatje Cantz, 2008); and Wolfgang Tillmans: manual (Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2007).

Work by the artist is held in museum collections worldwide, including the Art Institute of Chicago; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The National Museum of Art, Osaka; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate, London; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Tillmans lives and works in Berlin and London.

Image: Photo by Karl Kolbitz