PHOTOGRAPHS
Tillmans, Wolfgang
Germany (1968 - )
Concorde L441-OA
1997
Chromogenic color (Fujicolor) print
12 1/8 x 8 1/8 in. (30.8 x 20.6 cm) image size;12 5/8 x 8 5/8 in. (32 x 22 cm) sheet size; 20 1/4 x 16 1/4 x 1 1/2 in. (51.4 x 41.3 x 3.8 cm) frame size
Gift of Burt and Jane Berman
FA 2004.174
Keywords: Landscape; Transportation (Concorde airplane)

In his series Concorde (1997), Wolfgang Tillmans records the daily passings of the supersonic Concorde, ranging from the looming airplane in the sky overhead to a faint glimpse of it in the hazy distance. Tillmans investigates the plane as the last symbol of the space age and the destruction of a hope once offered by technology. Describing this project, the artist wrote “for me and my generation there is no super future.” (Paul Mitchell, “Turner Prize award to Wolfgang Tillmans hailed as shift in focus,” http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/dec2000/tate-d28.shtml).

German-born Wolfgang Tillmans has emerged as one of the most influential and innovative photographers of his generation. His photographs documenting underground music and fashion first appeared in the early 1990s in the pages of such magazines as I-D, Interview, and The Face. Tillmans has become known for his salon-style hangings of unframed photographic prints attached to gallery walls. He groups portraits, still-lifes, landscapes, and abstractions span provocative images of sexual taboo to moments of classical beauty found in unusual or unlikely places (“Wolfgang Tillmans,” http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/tillman.html). -- Label copy for 150 Works of Art, October 1, 2005 to February 26, 2006.

The Concorde jet was developed jointly by the British and French governments in the 1960s. First flown commercially in 1976, the creators of the jets promised travelers they would arrive at their destination in half the time of a standard flight. Tillmans thought the Concorde to be a thoroughly Utopian concept that was closely related to the optimism of the 1960s. Though he believed that this unyielding hope for the future had diminished in the proceeding decades, Wolfgang felt that the Concorde was without question the “first space-age item,” holding significant symbolism for all that it was and could have been. As a result of his fascination with the jet, in the spring of 1997 he surreptitiously plane spotted outside Heathrow and other surrounding airports, watching the skies for any one of the 20 Concorde jets in flight. Tillmans believed it was critical that the project not be sanctioned by any airline, allowing him to focus on the imperfections of the object rather than its perceived luxury. Following the tragic crash of Flight 4590 in 2000, the Concorde was retired in the fall of 2003. These events led the artist to reflect on the significance of the series – that the fundamental flaws of the Concorde made it very human.

-- Label copy for Wolfgang Tillmans, October 15, 2011, to February 12, 2012.
Copyright credit: Courtesy Maureen Paley, London