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Lot Essay
Louvre IV, Paris (1989), is one of the most iconic images of Thomas Struth's celebrated series of Museum Photographs. In this series, Struth staged spectators in front of seminal paintings in major museums and then photographed the whole scene, as if he himself were a tourist. The Museum Photographs help us to see how people look at a masterwork, and how people look while looking at said masterwork.
As Struth explains: "I got the first ideas for these works in the Louvre around Christmas time; it was very crowded and I thought that the world of visitors in the Louvre, people of the most diverse ages and ethnicities, were incredibly similar to the themes in the paintings. And my other conclusion was that I wondered why all the people were there; what were they getting out of it, in their public lives, in their activity, in their family, with their friends? Is any change through the museum visit even possible, or is it an entertainment, like watching music videos or the way one needs visual refreshment to keep from getting bored." (cited in exh. cat. 1999, p. 166).
As Struth explains: "I got the first ideas for these works in the Louvre around Christmas time; it was very crowded and I thought that the world of visitors in the Louvre, people of the most diverse ages and ethnicities, were incredibly similar to the themes in the paintings. And my other conclusion was that I wondered why all the people were there; what were they getting out of it, in their public lives, in their activity, in their family, with their friends? Is any change through the museum visit even possible, or is it an entertainment, like watching music videos or the way one needs visual refreshment to keep from getting bored." (cited in exh. cat. 1999, p. 166).