Description
With h.p.b. 01 (2001–02), Thomas Ruff turns architecture into a study of perception. Starting from a historical photograph of Haus Perls in Berlin—an early and significant commission by Mies van der Rohe—Ruff applies a subtle intervention that changes everything. The façade becomes more graphic, the geometry more insistent, and the windows glow as if lit from within. At first glance, the image reads like a straightforward document; a second look reveals something staged, almost cinematic.
The building’s layered history mirrors the 20th century itself: commissioned by the lawyer and collector Hugo Perls, later linked to the collector Eduard Fuchs, expanded by Mies in 1928, then reshaped by the political ruptures of the 1930s and beyond. Ruff’s edit compresses that timeline into a single charged image—where “archive” becomes “image,” and the idea of photographic truth is gently questioned.
Published by Texte zur Kunst (Berlin, 2002), this work is a chromogenic C-print, hand-signed and numbered in pencil on the back. A highly collectible example of Ruff’s conceptual approach to photography, connecting contemporary image-making with architectural history. Offered here professionally framed, ready for display.
Details
Artist: Thomas Ruff
Title: h.p.b. 01
Year: 2001–02 (published 2002)
Medium: chromogenic print (C-print)
Image size: approx. 17.5 × 24 cm
Sheet size: 24 × 30 cm
Edition: 150 + 20 artist’s proofs
Signature / numbering: signed and numbered in pencil on the verso 4/150
Publisher: Texte zur Kunst, Berlin (2002)
Condition: excellent
Framing: professionally framed, ready to hang
