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Wolfgang Tillmans
Shortlisted: 2000

In a world already saturated with images, Tillmans uses photography to question conventional aesthetics and codes of representation. He creates images of great resonance from unlikely sources: a half-naked man urinating on a chair, rats rummaging through city rubbish, snow melting on a pavement. Through them, Tillmans reaches beneath the surface of contemporary culture, and invites us to do the same.

Wolfgang Tillmans was born in Remscheid, Germany in 1968 and studied at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design from 1990 to 1992. He won the Turner Prize in 2000 for his exhibitions at Interim Art, Stadlische Galerie, and Andrea Rosen Gallery. These exhibitions revealed how his work 'engages with contemporary culture while challenging.established genres of portraiture, documentary, and still life.'

This information has been taken from The Turner Prize: Twenty Years, by Virginia Button, Tate Publishing, 2003.

See also the transcript of the Tillmans live webchat in 2000.

View Wolfgang Tillmans in the Tate Collection