Jürgen Klauke

Jürgen Klauke (b. 1943) is a German artist whose practice centres on the body, identity, performance, and staged photography. Since the early 1970s, he has used the camera to construct unstable images of the self: theatrical, ritualized, technological, and often darkly comic. His work moves between photographic sequence, object staging, X-ray imagery, and the body as an administered or monitored subject.

Klauke studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and has been Professor of Artistic Photography at the Kunsthochschule für Medien, Cologne since 1993. His practice anticipates many of the concerns of later body art and queer performance, and his work has been exhibited widely across Europe. Major publications include Prosecuritas (Cantz / Kunsthalle Bielefeld, 1994) and Transformer (1973), among others.

Publications gathered here include exhibition catalogues and printed matter documenting Klauke's practice. Original and period items.

  • Original 1994 Jürgen Klauke Prosecuritas exhibition catalogue. Front cover showing a black-and-white scanned or photocopied image: two small dog silhouettes walk across a pale ground trailing long curved lines, while large dark shadowy forms — a vertical pole left and a crouching figure lower right — dominate the foreground. Title 'JÜRGEN KLAUKE »PROSECURITAS«' in small spaced sans-serif type upper centre. Square format, cloth-bound hardcover with clear plastic dust jacket. Interior spread from Jürgen Klauke Prosecuritas catalogue, 1994. Upper half: four-panel black-and-white photographic sequence captioned 'Abb. 9 »SCHUSSFOLGE/SCHLUSSFOLGE«, 1976, vierteilige Fotosequenz, je 80×120 cm', showing a shirtless man holding a revolver to his head in four sequential poses. Lower half: full-width black-and-white photograph captioned 'Abb. 10 aus dem Werkkomplex: »SCHATTENBILDER«, 1984, Fotoarbeit, 110×200 cm', showing two seated silhouettes facing each other across a table with a tel

    Jürgen Klauke — Prosecuritas, Cantz / Kunsthalle Bielefeld, 1994

    Jürgen Klauke — Prosecuritas, Cantz / Kunsthalle Bielefeld, 1994