Jeff Wall / Fondation Beyeler

Jeff Wall at the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen (Basel, Switzerland) is a comprehensive solo show that features more than 50 works of the Canadian artist. Spanning five decades, the retrospective presents a recent works, usually in counterpoint to older pictures. Many of the artist’s most famous works are included, such as “Milk”, 1984; “After ‘Invisible Man’ by Ralph Ellison, the Prologue”, 1999–2000; or “A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai)”, 1993. The exhibition places particular emphasis on works produced in the last two decades, among them photographs on public view for the first time. The exhibition has been conceived in close collaboration with the artist. Jeff Wall at Fondation Beyeler runs until April 21, 2024.

Jeff Wall / Fondation Beyeler, Riehen (Basel, Switzerland). Media Preview, January 26, 2024.

Press text (excerpt):

At the beginning of the new year, the Fondation Beyeler is devoting a comprehensive solo show to Canadian artist Jeff Wall (b. 1946). It is the first exhibition of such scope in Switzerland in close to two decades. Wall has contributed significantly to establishing photography as an autonomous art form and is regarded today as one of its foremost practitioners. Featuring more than 50 works spanning five decades, the exhibition presents a comprehensive overview of the artist’s ground-breaking oeuvre, from his iconic large-scale transparencies displayed in lightboxes to his large-format black-and-white photographs and inkjet colour prints. The exhibition places particular emphasis on works produced in the last two decades, among them photographs on public view for the first time. The exhibition has been conceived in close collaboration with the artist.

In his work, Jeff Wall probes the boundary between fact and invention, chance and construction. From the mid-1970s, he has explored ways to expand the artistic possibilities of photography. Wall calls his work ‘cinematography’, seeing in the cinema a model of creative freedom and invention that had been subdued in the dominant definition of photography as ‘documentary’. Many of his photographs are constructed images that involve extensive planning and preparation, collaboration with performers, and ‘post production’ work. Jeff Wall thus creates images that diverge from the notion of photography as primarily a faithful documentation of reality.