nudes, 2001

This edition of eight prints belongs to Thomas Ruff’s nudes series, a provocative exploration of digital erotic imagery drawn from the internet. Starting in the late 1990s, Ruff began collecting low-resolution pornographic images from online “thumbnail galleries,” attracted by their pixelated structure and compressed digital aesthetic. He enlarged and digitally altered the images – adjusting color, softening focus, and removing graphic detail—to transform explicit content into something painterly and ambiguous. The resulting works blur the boundary between pornography and art, inviting viewers to reflect on the visual codes, desires, and conventions that shape our digital image culture.