Born: 1968 Remscheid, Federal Republic of Germany (now Germany)
Year of Migration to the UK: 1995
Other name/s: Wolfgang Tillmans RA
Biography
Photographer and electronic musician, Wolfgang Tillmans was born on 16 August 1968 in Remscheid, Germany, into a family of amateur photographers. Between the ages of 14 and 16 Tillmans made frequent visits to the Museum Ludwig in Cologne as well as to museums in Dusseldorf, becoming acquainted with the photo-based work of German artists, Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke, as well as American graphic artists, Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol. In 1983, aged 15, he visited England as an exchange student, discovering British youth culture and contemporary fashion and music magazines. Between 1987 and 1990 he lived in Hamburg where in 1988 he had his first solo exhibitions at Cafe Gnosa, Fabrik-Foto-Forum and Front.
Tillmans returned to England in 1990 and studied at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design (now Arts University Bournemouth) before relocating to London in 1992 and then to New York, USA for a year where he met his partner, the German painter Jochen Klein. In 1995 he and Klein moved back to London. Tillman's first solo show in the capital was held at Interim Art (renamed Maureen Paley in 2004) later that year and was followed by a major exhibition, I Didn’t Inhale at Chisenhale Gallery in 1997. The day after the exhibition's opening, his partner fell gravely ill with AIDS-related pneumonia and died tragically a month later. In 2017 Tillmans revealed in a SHOWstudio conversation with Lou Stoppard that he is also HIV positive, stating, ‘AIDS has always been in my life since I have been an adult. It has featured in my work in a way, but I’m aware of the fragility of life’ (Lou Stoppard, SHOWstudio, 2017). His work 17 Years Supply (2014) features a large cardboard box filled with HIV medication and provides a startling insight into his life with the disease.
Tillmans’ diverse body of work, often minimalistic portrayals of the everyday, spans banal subject matter, nature photography and abstraction. Known initially for his dynamic portraits of friends, and of the youth scene and LGBTQ + community of the 1990s which established his reputation as a prominent witness of contemporary social movements, his photographic practice subsequently developed to encompass a wide array of genres. His portraits, still lifes, sky photographs, astrophotography, aerial shots and landscapes are motivated equally by aesthetic and political interests. He says of his work: 'I take pictures, in order to see the world' (Lux Magazine). In 2000 Tillmans became the first photographer and the first non-British artist to be awarded the Turner Prize, his work judged to be reflective of ‘His love of street and club culture, of techno music, his support for the peace movement and his involvement in gay rights [which] situated him at the centre of [the] recession-led rave culture of the early 90s’ (Liz Jobey, 2010). In 2003 Tillmans presented a solo show at Tate Britain, entitled If One Thing Matters, Everything Matters and in 2017 a retrospective of his work was held at Tate Modern. The exhibition represented a ‘personal response to the present moment’ and highlighted a shift in Tillmans' photographic methods, charting his exclusive use of a 50mm Contax SLR for nearly two decades, his embrace of digital photography in 2009 and his abandonment of film altogether in 2012.
Tillmans has also often used his work to document extraordinary events. In 2011, a year after the earthquake of 2010 ripped through Haiti, he travelled with Christian Aid to photograph the reconstruction of the island. In April 2016 he launched a series of posters amid the Brexit campaign to persuade people to vote in favour of remaining within the European Union. In a statement he said, ‘The reasons why I felt compelled to get involved in the UK-EU referendum are personal – my lifelong involvement with the UK, my love for the UK and its culture, music and people, my career’s groundedness in Britain and the always warm welcome I felt here as a German. I see myself as a product of the European post-war history of reconciliation, peace and exchange’ (Artist’s Statement, May 2016). His time is now divided equally between London and Berlin. Tillmans' work has received much critical acclaim in the UK. Aside from the Turner Prize in 2000, he was also the recipient in 2014 of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition’s Charles Wollaston Award, the same year that he was elected a Royal Academician (RA). In 2015 he received the Hasselblad Award and the Royal Photographic Society’s Centenary Medal. In the UK public domain his work is held in many collections, including the National Portrait Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts, Tate and the V&A.
Related books
- Wolfgang Tillmans (Phaidon Contemporary Artists Series), Jan Verwoert, Peter Halley, Midori Matsui (London: Phaidon, 2022 (Reprint, updated)
- Roxana Marcoci, ed., Wolfgang Tillmans: To look without fear (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2022)
- Matthias Michalka, ed., Wolfgang Tillmans: Sound Is Liquid (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2022)
- Marcoci, Roxana, and Phil Taylor, eds., Wolfgang Tillmans: A Reader (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2022)
- Tom Holert and Klaus Pollmeier, Saturated Light: Wolfgang Tillmans, Silver Works (Berlin: Galerie Buchholz and Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Franz und Walther König, 2021)
- Wolfgang Tillmans: DZHK Book 2018 (Hong Kong: David Zwirner Books, 2018)
- Dr Elisa Schaar and Dr Prerona Prasad, Do I have to draw you a picture? (Cambridge: Heong Gallery, Downing College, University of Cambridge, 2018)
- Wolfgang Tillmans and Brigitte Oetker eds., Jahresring 64: What is Different? (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2017)
- Wolfgang Tillmans: 2017 (London: Tate Publishing, 2017)
- Wolfgang Tillmans, On the Verge of Visibility (Porto: Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, 2016)
- Wolfgang Tillmans (London and New York: Phaidon Press, 2014)
- Wolfgang Tillmans (Tokyo: BT Books, 2014)
- Wolfgang Tillmans (Tokyo: Wako Book 5, Wako Works of Art, 2014)
- Neue Welt: Wolfgang Tillmans, (London: Taschen, 2012)
- Wolfgang Tillmans Abstract Pictures (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2011)
- Wolfgang Tillmans, (London: Serpentine Gallery and Koenig Books, 2010)
- Wolfgang Tillmans: Interviews (Tokyo: Wako Works of Art, 2010)
- Hans Ulrich Obrist, Wolfgang Tillmans, The Conversation Series Vol.6 (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2007)
- Wolgang Tillmans, Why We Must Provide HIV Treatment Information (London: HIV i-base, 2007)
- Wolfgang Tillmans, If one thing matters, everything matters (London: Tate Publishing, 2003)
- Wolfgang Tillmans (London and New York: Phaidon Press, 2002)
- Wolfgang Tillmans: Still Life (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Art Museum, 2002)
- Wolfgang Tillmans, Soldiers: The Nineties (Cologne: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 1999)
- Wolfgang Tillmans, Total Solar Eclipse (Cologne: Galerie Daniel Buchholz, 1999)
Public collections
Related organisations
- Akademie der Künste (member)
- Arts University Bournemouth (student and honorary fellow)
- Institute of Contemporary Arts (Chairman of the Board)
- Royal Academy of Arts (Academician)
- Spex (co-editor)
- Tate (Trustee, council member, collection committee member)
Related web links
- Artist’s statement on anti-Brexit campaign, artist's website
- Casual Beauty, Jeremy Millar, Tate
- Entry on Tillmans on Phaidon website, including blog articles
- Interview: Wolfgang Tillmans, SHOWstudio. 2017
- In the Studio with Wolfgang Tillmans RA
- Liz Jobey, ‘Wolfgang Tillmans: the Lightness of Being’, The Guardian, 2010
- Wolfgang Tillmans Biography, David Zwirner
- Wolfgang Tillmans, Christie’s
- Wolfgang Tillmans, Royal Academician
- ‘Wolfgang Tillmans: the Visual Artist and Philosopher’, LUX magazine
- Wolfgang Tillmans: 'What Art Does in me is Beyond Words', Tateshots, 2017
Selected exhibitions
- Summer exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts (2020)
- Feast for the Eyes – The Story of Food in Photography, The Photographers’ Gallery (2019)
- Wolfgang Tillmans, Maureen Paley, London (2019)
- On Paper, Arts Council Touring Exhibition, Gallery Oldham (2018)
- There not There, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London (2018)
- The Great Spectacle, The Royal Academy of Arts, London (2018)
- Wolfgang Tillmans: 2017, Tate Modern (2017)
- Coming Out: Sexuality, Gender & Identity, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (2017)
- Protest, Victoria Miro Gallery, London (2016)
- Wolfgang Tillmans, Maureen Paley, London (2016)
- Seeing Round Corners, Turner Contemporary, Margate (2016)
- Picture from New World, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow (2016)
- Central Nervous System, Maureen Paley, London (2013)
- A New Installation With Works from the Arts Council Collection, The Common Guild, Glasgow (2012)
- Wolfgang Tillmans, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (2010)
- Wolfgang Tillmans, Serpentine Gallery, London (2010)
- Wolfgang Tillmans, Maureen Paley, London (2008)
- Truth Study Centre, Maureen Paley, London (2005)
- Wolfgang Tillmans: if one thing matters, everything matter, Tate Britain, London (2003)
- Space between Two Buildings / Soldiers – The Nineties, Maureen Paley / Interim Art, London (1999)
- Wolfgang Tillmans: I didn't inhale, Chisenhale Gallery, London (1997)
- Wolfgang Tillmans, Interim Art, London (1995)
