What You Need To Know About…Jeff Wall

Following on from instalments about Andreas Gursky, Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince and Gilbert & George, this edition looks at Canadian photographer Jeff Wall whose Dead Troops Talk image is the 5th most expensive photograph to sell at auction.

Profile

Born 29 September 1946 in Vancouver, Canada

Best known for large-scale back-lit images with a cinematic look.

Work

Jeff Wall 1978 – 2004

Sonic Youth’s The Destroyed Room compilation album uses Wall’s The Destroyed Room.

Iggy Pop’s Avenue B features a portrait taken by Wall.

Influences

Diego Velazquez, Hokusai, Edouard Manet, Goya, Franz Kafka, Yukio Mishima, Ralph Ellison.

Many of Wall’s pieces are directly inspired by previous works of art such as Wall’s A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai) (above), which is a photographic portrayal of the 1832 piece Yejiri Station, Province of Suruga by Katsushika Hokusai. Other direct influences include Manet’s Un bar aux Folies Bergere – an influence for Picture for Women.

At auction

Though Wall made headlines in 2006 for the sale of Untangling, reported to have sold for $1 million (Australian dollars), it was a private sale and therefore unverifiable. To date, Wall’s most famous sale at auction is the 2012 sale of Dead Troops Talk (A Vision After an Ambush of a Red Army Patrol near Moqor, Afghanistan, Winter 1986) (below) photographed in 1992. The image was sold by Christie’s New York in May 2012 for $3,666,500 making it the fifth most expensive photograph to ever sell at auction. Despite this success, it is the only image by Wall to list in the top 50 most expensive photographs at auction.

What you need to know

Rather than creating bodies of work, or thematic serials, Wall produces one-off ‘installations’. Large in scale and back-lit by light boxes, the images are formally produced, choreographed and shot by Wall, inspired by art works, stories or fleeting experiences. Most often shot in colour Wall has also created traditional silver gelatin prints.