Thomas Ruff19501970Tableaux ChinoisLa Chine2021Dieter Roestraete

For his “Tableaux chinois” series, Thomas Ruff digitally edited Chinese propaganda images from between 1950 and 1970. The Chinese Communist Party published these images in “La Chine“, a magazine distributed in various languages around the world. Now presented in a large-format photobook, Ruff’s work links the original analogue offset printing grid with the digital pixel structure. In doing so, the artist transports the 20th century propaganda images into the visual language of the 21st century.