Photo artist Andreas Gursky showcases 'not abstract' works in Dusseldorf

It's a world filled with coffee makers, irons and radio alarm clocks. Gursky's "Mediamarkt" (2016) appears two-dimensional, yet approachable. Still, the missing perspective is irritating; the artist composes his pictures anew on his computer, condensing their reality, shifting the objectivity, creating an image that is simultaneously abstract and concrete.

An endless wave of solar panels fills the landscape in southern France, creating the appearance of a tortoise shell. A mountain range rises out of the cloudy gray skied backdrop. Gorgeous - yet this "Favorite Picture," as Gursky has called it, took more than half a year to create.

Gursky's "Amazon" (2016) is a real puzzle to look at. He's photographed the inside of an Amazon warehouse and zoomed in on the background while minimizing the foreground. As a result, the image looks flat, two-dimensional, as though the artist had taken the picture from afar. From Gursky's perspective, the camera would be best placed on the moon.

Paint blobs, lines and surfaces all run together in this image by Gursky that is seemingly inspired by the work of abstract painters who rely on informality and the principal of shapelessness. In the American Hall at the museum, a sound installation created by Canadian electronic musician Richie Hawtin, whose minimalist electronic music crescendoes and pauses, providing sonic undertones.

A visitor to the exhibition is astounded by the work titled "Rhein II," created in 1999. It captures the lower Rhine River, where the powerful rush of water is reduced to a small canal through computer editing. The motif that the artist employs in his edits creates the feel of an American expressionist painting.

The bulk of Gursky's pictures are hanging in their own large hall, though some of them have been placed alongside the rest of the museum's collection, placing Gursky's photography alongside the classics of the modern era. Sometimes it works. Other times, visitors are left to scratch their heads: Is the artist tricking the museum?

For Andreas Gursky, 61, the "not abstract" exhibition is a home game. Born in Leipzig, he has lived and worked in Dusseldorf since 1957, where he was a student of Bernd Becher and the co-founder of the "Düsseldorfer Photoschule." Today, Gursky is one of the most internationally successful photographers. The "not abstract" exhibition runs through November 6 at the Kunstsammlung NRW.