Thomas Ruff – l.m.v.d.r. Volume 2

Thomas Ruff’s photo­graphic rela­tion­ship with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s archi­tec­ture has always felt less like a tribute and more like a clin­i­cal autopsy of space. In l.m.v.d.r. Volume 2—a slender compan­ion to his first volume, docu­ment­ing his exhi­bi­tion at Krefeld’s Haus Lange and Haus Esters — Ruff contin­ues his cool, analyt­i­cal disman­tling of the Bauhaus legacy. Through four­teen four-color plates, Mies’s struc­tural preci­sion is met with Ruff’s absolute tonal clarity. There is no warmth here, only the sharp, silver-foiled elegance of modernism looking at itself in the mirror. Accom­pa­nied by sharp texts from Julian Heynen and Rita Kerst­ing, the unpag­i­nated volume, bound in a matte forest green, func­tions less as a coffee-table luxury and more as a quiet, essen­tial post­script to an architectural fixation.