The Evolution Of The Formal Language Of Andreas Gursky’s Photography

As one of the representative figures of contemporary photographic art,Andreas Gursky continued to innovate on the basis of his inheritance of the German photographic tradition,eventually creating a unique formal language for his own work.Most of the previous case studies on Gursky have focused on the formal and social connotations of his mature works after the 1990 s,lacking a more macroscopic grasp of the artist’s creative career since his introduction to photography.However,it is clear that the development of Gursky’s work cannot be ignored.Together with his post-1990 s masterpieces,the early works constitute a spectrum of the evolution of Gursky’s formal language.Moreover,the evolution of these forms between stages did not happen overnight,but rather was a process of continuous paving and gradual progression,with corresponding causal relationships,which gradually evolved into the iconic state that has persisted since the 1990 s,when his own artistic style was established.This evolutionary process reflects the various influences on Gursky and the subjective consciousness he exerted in his own creation,and is worth exploring and tracing.This paper is dedicated to delineating the various stages of Gursky’s artistic career through the analysis of specific works,and summarizing the characteristics of the formal language of each stage of his works and the process of their evolution and succession,divided into six chapters.The first introductory chapter introduces the topic and purpose of this dissertation,research ideas and methods,academic innovation and research value,and the current status of domestic and international research.The second chapter specifically discusses Gursky’s early studies and creations in the construction stage of formal language before he joined the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf,and summarizes the signature formal language characteristics of his works.Chapter 3 focuses on the refinement of Gursky’s formal language,introducing the typological and neo-color photographic influences during his studies at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art,and the works completed based on these influences,and summarizing the formal language characteristics of his works during the refinement period.Chapter 4,the focus of this paper,focuses on the process of Gursky’s breakthrough from the previous stage of formal language to his own creative maturity,through specific works and the artist’s experience;likewise,it summarizes the characteristics of the formal language of his works at this stage in relation to his specific creations.In the fifth chapter,we reflect on the spread and influence of Gursky’s formal language in contemporary photography through three aspects: the market,exhibitions,and comparative studies with other photographic artists.Inspired by the formal language of Gursky’s works,the author created the graduation work "Siege" by combining his own artistic concepts,and in the last chapter of this thesis,the specific creation process and the ideas expressed in this work are introduced.