About Thomas Demand

Thomas Demand is a renowned German artist whose unique practice integrates sculpture and photography, creating large-scale, illusionistic photographs that are steeped in layers of interpretation and artifice. Initially trained as a sculptor, Demand began his artistic journey crafting intricate models from paper, which he then captured photographically. Over time, his method evolved such that the models themselves became transient, constructed solely for the purpose of photographing and then deliberately destroyed, leaving the photos as the sole enduring artworks.

Demand’s artworks are meticulously staged recreations of scenes often sourced from media images that depict politically or historically significant locations. For instance, he has reconstructed environments like the bunker where an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler was made, transforming them into life-size models made entirely from paper and cardboard. These models, while appearing ordinary at first glance, hold deep historical and political resonances. After photographing these painstakingly crafted scenes, Demand destroys the physical model, ensuring that the photograph serves as the final, enigmatic artifact of his artistic intervention. The resulting artwork challenges the viewer’s perception of reality, blurring the lines between what is real and what is fabricated.

Demand’s art questions the authenticity of photographic representation and explores themes of memory and history, often depicting spaces that suggest human presence or recent activity yet remain hauntingly devoid of people. Thomas Demand was born in Munich, Germany in 1964.

Auction record: US$413k, Phillips, 2015

Notable exhibitions

Thomas Demand gained international acclaim in the early 2000s for his meticulously constructed photographic scenes, leading to his representation of Germany at the 26th São Paulo Biennale in 2004.

He has since been the subject of major solo exhibitions at renowned institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Serpentine Gallery in London, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo.

More recent highlights include exhibitions at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, and the Fondazione Prada in Venice, confirming his position as a leading figure in contemporary photography and conceptual art.