
Not on display
- Artist
- Andreas Gursky born 1955
- Original title
- Theben, West
- Medium
- Photograph, colour, on paper on Perspex
- Dimensions
- Support: 2020 x 1650 mm
image: 1677 x 1318 mm
frame: 2075 x 1704 x 50 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by the Patrons of New Art (Special Purchase Fund) through the Tate Gallery Foundation 1995
- Reference
- P11381
Display caption
Gursky uses a bird's-eye view to portray the collective behaviour of large social groups. His compositions illuminate the complex inter-relationship between man and his immediate environment. Landscapes often bear the traces of human activity, and yet our movements and actions are themselves determined by our physical surroundings. In this image, past and present are intertwined as modern-day tourists explore the archeological site of ancient Thebes, in Egypt. The landscape is revealed layer by layer, to show history extending its reach into the present.
Gallery label, August 2004
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Explore
- architecture(41,338)
-
- periods and styles(5,198)
-
- Egyptian(10)
- ruins(3,720)
-
- townscape(100)
- townscapes / man-made features(21,710)
-
- townscape(3,313)
- formal qualities(12,931)
-
- aerial view(122)
- photographic(5,089)
- environment / nature(388)
- history(1,987)
- water: inland(11,122)
-
- river(7,971)
- cities, towns, villages (non-UK)(13,291)
-
- Thebes(3)
- Egypt(91)
You might like
-
Andreas Gursky Centre Georges Pompidou
1995 -
Andreas Gursky The Rhine II
1999 -
Andreas Gursky Parliament
1998 -
Andreas Gursky Bahrain I
2005 -
Andreas Gursky Chicago, Board of Trade II
1999 -
Candida Höfer Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen I
2001 -
Thomas Struth Galleria dell’Accademia I, Venice 1992
1992 -
Thomas Struth National Gallery I, London 1989
1989 -
Thomas Struth Graves at the Sophienkirche, Grosse Hamburger Strasse, Berlin 1992
1992 -
Thomas Ruff Goetz Collection
1994 -
Thomas Ruff Portrait 1986 (Stoya)
1986 -
Thomas Struth The Shimada Family, Yamaguchi, Japan 1986
1986 -
Thomas Struth The Late Giles Robertson (with Book), Edinburgh 1987
1987 -
Thomas Struth Kyoko and Tomoharu Murakami, Tokyo 1991
1991 -
Thomas Struth Boats at Wushan, Yangtse River
1997