Christian Boltanski

Christian Boltanski is a French photographer, sculptor, painter and installation artist who was born in 1944 in Paris. He stopped his formal education at age twelve and began to immerse himself in creating art, particularly painting and drawing. As he got older, his work became more mixed media and intallation. The Tate museum website quotes that his work uses "the ephemera of the human experience, from obituary photographs to rusted biscuit tins." He commonly uses found photographs and relies heavily on lights in the exhibition of his work. Around 60% of his work is destroyed after shows. His work has been exhibited internationally since the 1970s.

http://www.tate.org.uk/magazine/issue2/boltanski.htm (Interview)

http://www.mariangoodman.com/ (Gallery representing artist)

http://www.christianboltanski.net/ (Artist Website)


Christian Boltanski once said that "every time you try to preserve something, you kill it" and that "photography both saves and kills." Those quotes have stuck with me since I heard them and have provoked a great deal of thought, as well as introspection regarding my own work.