Juergen TELLER | PORTRAITS

About

A curious feature, amongst many others, of humans is that hardly anyone is identical in appearance to anyone else. There are, however, exceptions caused by genetics, namely twins. Some of them are successful in show business, as for example the Kessler Twins from the time of my youth: two beautiful women who danced harmoniously together in front of the camera. It is nonetheless obvious that twins are also not identical, however much they may be confused with one another. Likewise, all people are “somehow” similar to another; one recognises immediately that which they all share. “Hier ist ein Mensch” [“Here is a human”], sang Peter Alexander, a rare luminary in the same branch as the Kessler Twins. He also immediately recognised the quality of being human!  

The artistic desire to depict the multiplicity in the unity of people, and in fact as precisely as possible, is perfectly clear. In Thomas Bernhard’s “Alte Meister” [“Old Masters”] such a portrait plays a role: Tintoretto’s “White-bearded Man”. Tintoretto’s painting, which performs its duty in the show business of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, is a masterpiece because the artist has successfully captured the principium individuationis at its finest, that is, the always isolated individual without the social and fashionable accessories of the time. Something similar also takes place in the portrait photographs of Juergen Teller, yet whereas the self-painted classic image on the wall reflects the notion of order, the photographer of today reveals the untidiness of existence, and the extent to which the things of everyday life give a face to humanity. 

Franz Schuh, Vienna, 2023 | Translation: Sarah Cormack