Introduction

Esther Schipper is pleased to announce a presentation by Thomas Demand, who has had five solo exhibitions with the gallery. On view will be a suite of eleven hand-printed lithographs, produced by the legendary print publisher Gemini G.E.L., and installed on a new wallpaper work especially conceived for this presentation. 

Exquisitely crafted, the suite of lithographs depicts architectural structures that hold historical and cultural significance. The series includes notable works such as Concattedrale Gran Madre di Dio, depicting the 1970 cathedral in Taranto, Italy, designed by Gio Ponti. Demand highlights the cathedral's openwork walls, reminiscent of a paper cutout, and its role as a sanctuary for immigrants today. Another work, Notre-Dame de Reims, reflects on the tragic bombing of the Reims Cathedral during World War I and its subsequent reconstruction, symbolizing the fragile constructions of national identity. Shepherd Ivory Franz Hall II pays homage to the rational, modular efficiency of the UCLA building designed by Paul Revere Williams, the first Black member of the American Institute of Architects. A section of the colonnades of Munich's imposing Haus der Kunst, built by the Nazis as a Neoclassical temple to German art, stands as an awkward relic of the country's history. 

The suite was produced by the Los Angeles-based specialty print publisher Gemini G.E.L. With their subtle coloration and embossed detailing, the prints encapsulate key aspects of Thomas Demand's process: the transformation of a photographic image into a model made of color paper or cardboard, which in turn is represented as a photograph. This suite of lithographs continues the process by transforming Demand's image into a print capturing its fine details and textures. The suite of eleven lithographs was hand printed using 90 photolithography plates and 133 colors, with delicate embossed areas added to the skies, windows, shadows and alcoves, further enriching their depth and texture. This cycle of deconstruction, construction, and reconstruction is evident in the final works, which have both understated and strong blended colors that enhance the architectural forms, shapes, and shadows. 

The roots of the series lie in the covers Demand conceived for the Italian architecture magazine DOMUS when, in 2020, the renowned architect David Chipperfield was guest editor of the magazine. "The front of a magazine is itself a kind of façade" the artist noted at the time. The writer and art critic Jonathan Griffin has written a text for each lithograph that gives historical context to the depicted structure and speaks about the relevance of the motif to Demand.

The prints are installed on a new wallpaper work by Demand that features a pattern of blue and red circles. Interpreted by Demand in a color version, it draws on the vintage carpeting in Berlin's ICC, the International Congress Centrum. Inaugurated in 1979 in what was then West-Berlin, the ICC was at the time the most expensive structure built in the city. Declared a landmark in 2019, the building has been largely abandoned in recent years.