Interieurs (Interiors)

Thomas Ruff’s early series Interieurs (Interiors) (1979–1983) consists of small-scale, domestic scenes, usually depicting the artist’s own apartment and family home in Düsseldorf. By presenting the interiors in a straightforward but seemingly disinterested manner, with compositions arbitrarily cut off and furniture and walls often shown only partially, Ruff's series can be said to conflate the genres of documentary and artistic photography. The works appear to transcend their subject matter of predominantly brown beds, cupboards, dining tables, and flowery wallpaper, evocative of a particular moment in time, and rather seem to point towards a timeless, abstract state of mind.