Thomas Demand: Klause

The Berlin-based conceptual artist Thomas Demand, born in 1964 in Munich, makes hypnotically '"off" large-scale photographs of painstakingly rendered construction-paper models of architectural spaces and natural environments that he fabricates in his studio. In this small, tight board book printed on thick matte paper, Demand documents his most recent project: a series of five photographs that respond to the "degenerate" mid-century painter Max Beckmann's recently discovered lithograph series, Apocalypse. In Demand's interpretation, the horrifying incident is not Biblical; instead he recreates, with incredibly creepy precision, the environment of a provincial German pub where a recent child abuse and murder scandal took place. The 52 reproductions in Klause reveal cinematically suspenseful details of this project, but do not include the five resulting photographic artworks, which were unveiled during the Summer of 2006 at the Modern Art Museum of Frankfurt.