The state prize of North Rhine-Westphalia 2025 goes to Andreas Gursky. Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst honours the artist for the influence of his art and its significance for the cultural landscape of North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as for his many years of commitment to the promotion of photography.
Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst: “Andreas Gursky is a true master of photography and an icon of contemporary art. He is an ambassador for North Rhine-Westphalia all over the world and has already written art history today. His monumental works shape the art scene far beyond North Rhine-Westphalia. With his art, Gursky creates motifs that capture the pulse of our presence in its clarity, depth and size. He reveals the architecture of the world, he intervenes in it and enables unprecedented perspectives. He permeates the patterns of nature as well as that of civilization and creates images in which the individual detail does not perish, but is part of overarching structures and entanglements."
He continues "He is passionately committed to the importance of photography in science and society, including his determined commitment to the founding of the photo institute in Düsseldorf. As a professor of fine arts at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Andreas Gursky has inspired generations of artists. For his impressive art and his outstanding social commitment to the North Rhine-Westphalian art scene and far beyond, I award Andreas Gursky the State Prize of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.”
Andreas Gursky, born in Leipzig in 1955 and grew up in Düsseldorf, was a master student of Bernd and Hilla Becher – also state prize winner of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia – and belongs to the Düsseldorf Photoschule. Digital image processing, the composition of countless individual photographs and extreme large formats are characteristic of his works. They regularly achieve high prices in the international art market. Andreas Gursky is the German photo award winner from 1989, winner of the art prize Kaiserring der Stadt Goslar (2008) and winner of the cultural prize "Berliner Bär" (2009). He also received the sponsorship prize of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and in 2018 the Grand Culture Prize of the Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Rheinland.
Main Image: Foto: Alexander Romey