Axel Hütte
Axel Hütte is a post-war German photographer best known for large-scale landscapes captured at night using long exposures. Along with Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, and Candida Höfer, he studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Bernd and Hilla Becher. These artists, known as the Düsseldorf School, developed an aesthetic characterized by straightforward, documentary-style images. In Hütte’s city and landscapes, he avoids manipulation of his negatives and prints. Instead, the artist enhances his clinical approach with techniques more commonly associated with abstract painting, such as mathematically formulated compositions, and “all-overness,” where every part of the image is given equal importance.
Hütte's series As Dark/As Light (2001) captures cities around the world at night, focusing on carefully constructed, geometric compositions. Eliminating distinctions such as depth, height, fore-, middle-, and background, the blackness of the night sky tests the viewer’s limits of perception. Land, sky, and horizon merge imperceptibly into a flat, black plane. Whether city, architecture, woods, lakes, or snow covered mountains, Hütte’s scenes posses a painterly, timeless quality. Devoid of signs of civilization or narrative, they instill a sense of sublime–the world incomprehensible and infinite.
Axel Hütte’s work has been exhibited at the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de …
Axel Hütte is a post-war German photographer best known for large-scale landscapes captured at night using long exposures. Along with Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, and Candida Höfer, he studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Bernd and Hilla Becher. These artists, known as the Düsseldorf School, developed an aesthetic characterized by straightforward, documentary-style images. In Hütte’s city and landscapes, he avoids manipulation of his negatives and prints. Instead, the artist enhances his clinical approach with techniques more commonly associated with abstract painting, such as mathematically formulated compositions, and “all-overness,” where every part of the image is given equal importance.
Hütte's series As Dark/As Light (2001) captures cities around the world at night, focusing on carefully constructed, geometric compositions. Eliminating distinctions such as depth, height, fore-, middle-, and background, the blackness of the night sky tests the viewer’s limits of perception. Land, sky, and horizon merge imperceptibly into a flat, black plane. Whether city, architecture, woods, lakes, or snow covered mountains, Hütte’s scenes posses a painterly, timeless quality. Devoid of signs of civilization or narrative, they instill a sense of sublime–the world incomprehensible and infinite.
Axel Hütte’s work has been exhibited at the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern in Valencia, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, and Fundación Proa in Buenos Aires.