Since the early 1990s, the Dutch artist Rineke Dijkstra has produced an impressive body of photographic- and video work, offering a contemporary take on the genre of portraiture. By isolating people from their everyday context and searching for glimmers of individuality while focusing on subtle details, the posture and gaze of the subject, she encourages the viewer to look closely at people who are in transition in one way or another.
Her solo show in the Berlinische Galerie will give an overview of her work, concentrating on the theme of ‘transition’, with series like ‘New Mothers’, ‘Bullfighters’ and ‘Almerisa’. Also ‘The Park series’ partly created in Tiergarten, Berlin, will be presented, as will photographs which have remained in her archives and so far have not been displayed in public. Dijkstra is fascinated with the theme of authenticity, the way people express their personality, and how you can capture a certain kind of naturalness in a photograph. This is especially evident in her video art. The exhibition will consequently provide space for a selection of her videos: In addition to the iconic "The Buzz Club, Liverpool, UK / Mystery World, Zaandam, NL" (1996 - 97), the exhibition will also present "I See a Woman Crying" (2009).
Biography
Rineke Dijkstra was born in Sittard, The Netherlands in 1959. She attended the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam from 1981-1986. She has been honored with the Johannes Vermeer Prijs (2020), the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography (2017), SPECTRUM, International Prize for Photography of Stiftung Niedersachsen (2017) and The Citibank Private Bank Photography Prize (1999). Rineke Dijkstra was recently the subject of a mid-career retrospective on view at Museum De Pont, Tilburg, the Netherlands (2018) Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark (2017), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York (2012). In 2013, the Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK) Frankfurt showed the first comprehensive filmic retrospective of the Dutch artist's work worldwide.
