Thomas Demand at MoMA

Flying in the face of Jerry Saltz' modest proposal that MoMA "go lighter on established white guys and Germans", MoMA's first photography show in its renovated space is a mid-career retrospective of the very established, very white, very male, and sehr Deutsch Thomas Demand.

Like a lot of architectural work, with which his art shares some characteristics, Demand’s photographs probably look a lot better in conceptual sketches than in their final executions. Each photograph documents a carefully constructed historical recreation made of paper and cardboard. The choices of historical scenario cover a range of times and places but a number draw on incidents local to Germany that will be only vaguely familiar to many in the US. While a photograph like Clearing requires little context on the part of the viewer to understand the astonishing sculptural and photographic achievement, others such as Zimmer require so much background information that the photos on their own are simply too sterile to really hold a viewer’s attention. On a conceptual level, however, the layer of artifice (constructed reality) upon artifice (photographic capture of said non-reality) often coupled with a refocusing of attention to an off-center aspect of a more well-known story is good fodder for the MoMA cafe.

Elsewhere, Greg and Todd have weighed in.

Through May 30 at MoMA
11 W. 53 St.
(212)708-9400