Uta Barth

First published 15 August 2020

Uta Barth
Germany
1958–
Practice: Photography
Movement/Style: Contemporary

Uta Barth is best known for her alternative use of light, colour and focus, producing abstraction and distortion, resulting in an elusive and ethereal discourse of her images and subject matter. Barth considers her work never directly addresses the literal subject matter of the photograph but attempts to ask questions about vision itself, photographing sound, non-space and in-betweens. In her presentation for The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (2011), Uta Barth discusses her work over the past 20 years. Barth shares her influences and inspirations as she questions the interpretation of visual perception. Describing her work as visceral, Barth continues, explaining the application of psychological theories, including phenomenology, to her practice.

“The discussion of these photographs, or anything that lacks focus for that matter, as being ‘painterly’ or ‘pictorialist’, drives me crazy. It assumes that a photograph would secretly–or overtly–aspire to the attributes of painting in order to justify itself as an artwork” (Higgins 2013).

Uta Barth, Ground #56, 1995

Bibliography

Barth, Uta. 1994. Ground #30. Image. https://utabarth.net/work/ground/#image-3.

Barth, Uta. 2011. "Uta Barth 2.8.11". Podcast. Modern Art Museum Of Fort Worth. https://soundcloud.com/themodernpodcast/uta-barth-2811.

Barth, Uta. 2012. "Conceptual Photographer Uta Barth: 2012 MacArthur Fellow | MacArthur Foundation". macfound. October 2, 2012. YouTube video, 03:10. https://youtu.be/xxYcpPDq5iQ.