The ‘Still – Moving’ Portraits 1992-2024 exhibition by Rineke Dijkstra
The ‘Still – Moving’ Portraits 1992-2024 exhibition by Rineke Dijkstra is now on display at the Berlinische Galerie.
The ‘Still – Moving’ Portraits 1992-2024 exhibition by Rineke Dijkstra is now on display at the Berlinische Galerie.
The ‘Still – Moving’ Portraits 1992-2024 exhibition by Rineke Dijkstra at the Berlinische Galerie, Museum of Modern Art
Portraiture holds a significant place in the art world. Portraits provide a visual record of people from different eras, social classes and regions. A portrait seems to capture the very essence of an individual. In skilled hands, a portrait lets the artist connect with the viewer on a powerfully personal level. Portraiture allows artists to explore and convey emotions as well as themes relating to identity and personality. Portraits can resonate deeply with audiences regardless of the subject, the time period or the cultural context.
One artist who has helped to define the role of portraiture on the contemporary art scene is the Dutch videographer and photographer Rineke Dijkstra. Since the start of her career in the 1990s. Dijkstra has produced large-scale colour photographs and videos featuring young, adolescent subjects from a range of countries. Her work focuses on subtle contextual details and provokes the viewer to ponder the relationship between the photographer and the subject and the observer and the observed.
The ‘Still – Moving’ Portraits 1992-2024 exhibition by Rineke Dijkstra is being shown in the Berlinische Galerie at the Museum of Modern Art in Berlin, Germany. It is a major overawe of her work and a must-see for anyone interested in contemporary portraiture or photography.
Portraiture that depicts contemporary identity
The ‘Still – Moving’ exhibition comprises a collection of photographs spanning three decades featuring subjects from the USA, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, the UK, Germany , and the Netherlands. Various photo series from Dijkstra are included such as ‘New Mothers’, ‘Bullfighters’, ‘Almerisa’ and ‘The Park’ which was shot in Tiergarten, Berlin. The exhibition also displays photographs from the artist’s own archive that have never been seen before in public.
As well as displaying her captivating photographic series, the ‘Still – Moving’ exhibition allows visitors to view some of Dijkstra’s most important videography works. One of her most renowned videos ‘The Buzz Club, Liverpool, UK / Mystery World, Zaandam, NL’ (1996 - 97) is being shown as is the emotional work ‘I See a Woman Crying’ (2009).
There are approximately 80 works in total being shown ranging from the early days of Dijkstra’s career right up until the present day. Dijkstra’s photographic portraits of young people isolate the subjects from their usual contexts and force the viewer to concentrate on minutiae such as the subject’s gaze, their dress or their posture. As a photographer, Dijkstra strives to impart authenticity and a natural perspective in her works by exploring how people project their personalities in subtle ways.
Rineke Dijkstra, Vondelpark, Amsterdam, June 10, 2005 – Fotografie: Vier junge Personen sitzen bzw. liegen in Sommerkleidung in einem Park. Ihr direkt ist direkt in die Kamera gerichtet.
Credit : Courtesy of the artist, Galerie Max Hetzler, Marian Goodman Gallery and Galerie Jan Mot
One of the main themes of the ‘Still – Moving’ exhibition is the concept of transition. Viewers are encouraged to interpret the works with the idea that the subjects are being captured on their way from one place to another or from one emotional state to another.
Rineke Dijkstra: A unique photographic and video artist for our times
Still – Moving. Portraits 1992–2024, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, 2024
Credit : Roman März / maxhetzler
Born in 1959 in Sittard in the Netherlands, Rineke Dijkstra now lives and works in Amsterdam. She studied art at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and began her career with a self-portrait at the Marnixbad in Amsterdam. This spurred her to begin a series of photos that would become her ‘Beach Portraits’ series, one of the best-known, and featured in the ‘Still – Moving’ exhibition.
Dijkstra takes carefully composed yet natural colour frontal photographs of her subjects using a large-format 4×5” plate camera. Each exposure requires an individual sheet of film to develop. She often goes to some lengths to establish a close relationship with her subjects. This painstaking, empathetic approach is evident in her work.
‘Still – Moving’ Portraits 1992-2024 – exhibition details
The ‘Still – Moving’ Portraits 1992-2024 exhibition by Rineke Dijkstra is being shown at the Berlinische Galerie, Museum of Modern Art (Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur) located at Alte Jakobstraße 124 – 128 in Berlin, Germany. The works will be on display until the 10th February 2025.
The opening hours of the Museum of Modern Art are from 10 am to 6 pm Monday to Wednesday. The Museum of Modern Art is closed on Tuesdays.
