Jürgen Klauke

Jürgen Klauke was born in Kliding/Cochem in 1943. From 1964 to 1970 he studied Print-making at the Fachhochschule für Design und Kunst, Cologne, subsequently teaching at this institution until 1975. He later held guest professorships at the Hochschule für Bildenden Künste, Hamburg, the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich and the Gesamthochschule, Kassel. Since 1968 he has lived in Cologne.

Jürgen Klauke started out with an interest in drawing but turned to photography in 1970. In 1971 he published a series of photographic self-portraits accompanied by drawings: »Ich & Ich. Tageszeichnungen & Fotosequenzen« [I & I. Daily Drawings and Photographie Sequences]. Since then he has consistently placed his own image at the centre of his work. He always takes his starting point in longings, dreams, desires and anxieties, through which he approaches themes such as identity, sexuality, love, death and human relations. He addresses these subjects through drawings, performance art, video and film, although photography remains central to his work. In most of his sequences of large photographs and in his work in video, he is both director and actor; and he is usually the only person to appear in his performance pieces, which he records in self-contained sets of photographs. Since 1975, Klauke's performance art has incorporated elements of multi-media, e.g. »Formalization of Boredom (Formalisierung der Langeweile)«, 1979-82. Since the mid-1980s, Klauke has used X-Ray machines of the sort found at airport security controls for his photographic work: he uses these to push to its climax a compulsion to explore and record desire, thus making his subject the technological process itself into his subject.

​Individual exhibitions (selection)
 
1973 Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn
1975 Galerie Kochs, Cologne
1980 Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf
1981 »Formalisierung der Langeweile«, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn
1986 »Griffe ins Leere & Very de Nada«, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; »Eine Ewigkeit ein Lächeln«, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, subsequently at Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen Rotterdam, Museum Ludwig, Cologne
1990 »Prosecuritas. Travaux photo 1986-1990«, Galerie Pierre Bernard, Nice
1992 »Sonntagsneurosen«, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, subsequently at Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf
1993 »Stephen Heros«, Galerie Hermeyer, Munich
1994 »Jürgen Klauke. Cindy Sherman«, Sammlung Ingvild Goetz, Munich; »Stottern + Stammeln/länglich.«, Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer, Düsseldorf
1996 »Arbeiten auf Papier«, Galerie Pablo Stähli, Zürich
1997 »Phantomempfindung«, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, The Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, The Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, Yamaguchi; »Desaströses Ich«, Galerie Bugdahn und Kaimer, Düsseldorf

Group exhibitions (selection)
 
1974 »Transformer«, Kunstmuseum, Lucerne
1977 documenta VI, Kassel
1979 »ART: Museum des Geldes. Über die seltsame Natur des Geldes in Kunst, Wissenschaft und Leben Il«, Stedelijk Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, subsequently at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1980 Biennale di Venezia, Venice
1981 »Westkunst«, Museums of the City of Cologne
1985 »1945-1985. Kunst in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland«, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
1987 documenta VIII, Kassel
1990 »Kunstminen«, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf
1993 »Photographie in der deutschen Gegenwartskunst«, Museum Ludwig, Cologne
1995 »RAM Realität, Anspruch, Medium«, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, subsequently at Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen, Lindenau-Museum, Altenburg, Wiesbaden; »fémininmasculin: Le sexe de l'art«, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
1996 »Abenteuer Kunst«, Städtische Galerie Göppingen; »Höhepunkte zeitgenössischer Kunst aus der Sammlung Garnatz«, Städtische Galerie im Prinz-Max-Palais, Karlsruhe

[David Richardt, 1997]