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Günther Uecker

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Günther Uecker
Uecker in 2016
Born(1930-03-13)13 March 1930
Wendorf, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Germany
Died10 June 2025(2025-06-10) (aged 95)
Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
EducationKunstakademie Düsseldorf
OrganizationsZERO
Known for
  • Painting
  • sculpture
  • installation art
Günther Uecker, portrait by Lothar Wolleh

Günther Uecker (German pronunciation: [ˈɡʏntɐ ˈʔʏkɐ]; 13 March 1930 – 10 June 2025) was a German painter, sculptor, op artist, and installation artist. He became known primarily for his nail reliefs. In 1961, Uecker joined the initial founders of the ZERO group.

Early life and education

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Günther Uecker, portrait by Lothar Wolleh

Uecker was born on 13 March 1930 in Wendorf, Mecklenburg.[1] He grew up on a farm. At the end of World War II, he had to nail doors and windows to protect his mother and sister. Russian soldiers forced him, then age 15, to recover bodies that had been washed to the shore of the Baltic Sea.[2]

Uecker began his artistic education in 1949 when he took up studies at Wismar in 1952.[3] He then went to the art school in Berlin-Weißensee,[4] where he was educated in social realism, including work on a statue of Lenin 20 meters high. He was dismissed from the institution.[2] After the East German uprising of 1953, his escaped to the West. He settled in Düsseldorf where he studied under Otto Pankok at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.[2][4] In 1956, he began integrating nails in his art.[5]

Career

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Uecker, portrait by Oliver Mark (2011)

Uecker occupied himself with the medium of light, studied optical phenomena, series of structures, and the realms of oscillation that actively integrate the viewer and enable him to influence the visual process by kinetic or manual interference.[6]

In 1960, he met with group ZERO members Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, who propagated a new beginning of art in opposition to the German Informel.[7] Uecker, Mack and Piene began working together in joint studios at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1962 and installed a 'Salon de Lumière' at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Paris.[8] Other 'light salons' followed in Krefeld and in Frankfurt.[8]

Beginning in 1966, after the group ZERO dissolved its last joint exhibition,[9] Uecker increasingly began using nails as an artistic means of expression —- a material that, until today, stands in the centre of his oeuvre.[10] He began hammering nails into pieces of furniture, musical instruments as well as household objects, combining nails with the theme of light and creating his series of light nails and kinetic nails and other works. a-x Zero Garden (1966), in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art, demonstrates his use of nails to create the illusion of movement.[11]

Light and electricity continued to be one of the main subjects and natural materials, such as sand and water, were included in his installations, resulting in an interaction of the different elements to create a sensation of light, space, movement, and time. Uecker's oeuvre included painting, object art, installations[12] as well as stage designs[13] and films.[14] His origins explained his interest in the eastern European avant-garde of the 1920s and 1930s, but he was likewise interested in Asian cultures and their ideas.[15]

In 1974, Uecker began teaching at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and was promoted to professor in 1976.[4] teaching He became professor at the Academy, alongside Joseph Beuys and Klaus Rinke.[2] He taught there until 1995.[4] Halina Jaworski [de] was his first master student (Meisterschülerin).[16]

Uecker's artistic creativity reached a climax in 2000 in the prayer room he designed for the rebuilt Reichstag building in Berlin.[17]

With Otto Piene, Heinz Mack, and Mattijs Visser, he founded in 2008 the international ZERO foundation. The foundation has the complete ZERO archives from three Düsseldorfer artists as well as documents and photos from other related artists.[18]

Uecker was active through his last years; Glenn Adamson of Frieze reported that, even when Uecker was 90 years old, he was still working seven days a week, six hours a day, in the Düsseldorf studio he had held since 1987.[19] The blue stained glass windows in Schwerin Cathedral were among one of his last works.[20] In December 2024, the windows were inaugurated.[20]

Uecker died on 10 June 2025 at the University Hospital of Düsseldorf, aged 95.[21][22]

Exhibitions

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In addition to numerous Gruppo Zero exhibitions, Uecker participated in many other exhibitions, including documenta 4 in Kassel, Germany (1968), the 35th Venice Biennale (1970), and numerous solos shows, including one at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (1983), a retrospective at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich (1990), and another solo show at the Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany (2010).[23] He had his first solo exhibition in the United States at the Howard Wise Gallery on West 57th Street, showing important work such as the kinetic New York Dancer I (1966).[24] He designed the scenery for Richard Wagner's Lohengrin at Bayreuth (1979–82).[13]

His first solo show since 1968 took place early 2021 at the Lévy Gorvy gallery in Paris, called Lichtbogen, where he presented a new set of art inspired by a visit to an island in the Strait of Hormuz.[25]

Uecker's work can be found in the collections of major institutions worldwide, among them: the ZERO foundation and Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf; Calderara Foundation Collection, Milan; Courtauld Institute of Art, (London); Honolulu Museum of Art, the Schleswig-Holstein Museums (Germany), Studio Esseci (Padua, Italy), Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven, Netherlands), Von der Heydt-Museum (Wuppertal, Germany); Museum of Modern Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice the Ulster Museum, Belfast; and the Walker Art Center, Minnesota.[26]

Art market

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At Art Basel in 2014, art dealer Dominique Lévy sold a Uecker's suite of eight white paintings for more than 5 million euros.[27] In a Christie's Post-War Auction, Uecker's Spirale 1/ Spirale 2, sold for an artist record of £2,629,000 ($3.2 million dollars), on 7 March 2017.[28]

Awards

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Further reading

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  • Reifenscheid, Beate and Koelen, Dorothea van der: Arte in Movimento – Kunst in Bewegung, Dokumente unserer Zeit XXXXIV, Chorus-Verlag, Mainz 2011 ISBN 978-3-926663-44-3
  • Jocks, Heinz-Norbert: ZERO in Europa / Das erste gemeinsame Gespräch mit Piene, Mack und Uecker nach Ende von Zero, von , in: Lettre International, Berlin, Herbst 2011[31]
  • ZERO, Internationale Künstler Avantgarde, exhibition catalog published by Museum Kunst Palast and Cantz, with essays by Jean-Hubert Martin, Valerie Hilling, Heinz-Norbert Jocks Catherine Millet and Mattijs Visser, Düsseldorf/Ostfildern 2006, ISBN 978-3-9809060-4-3
  • Artempo, Where Time Becomes Art, exhibition catalog published by Musei Civici Veneziani, with essays by Jean-Hubert Martin, Heinz-Norbert Jocks, Massimo Cacciari, Giandomenico Romanelli and Mattijs Visser, MER Paper Kunsthalle Ghent 2007, ISBN 978-90-76979-47-2
  • Herzogenrath, Wulf and Koelen, Dorothea van der: Dokumente unserer Zeit XXXIII : Panta Rhei, Chorus – Verlag, Mainz 2005, ISBN 978-3-926663-33-7
  • ZERO in NY, exhibition catalog edited by Mattijs Visser, published by the ZERO foundation and Sperone Westwater, New York/Düsseldorf/Ghent 2008, ISBN 978-90-76979-73-1
  • Dombrowe, Britta Julia: Redepflicht und Schweigefluss. Zur Gestalt, Bedeutung und Funktion von Günther Ueckers Bibliophilen Werken, dissertation, University of Cologne, 2006
  • Uecker, Günther and Tolnay, Alexander: Günther Uecker. Hatje Cantz, 2005, ISBN 978-3-7757-1584-3
  • Uecker, Günther, Knigge, Volkhard Knigge, and Pietsch, Jürgen M.: Ein Steinmal in Buchenwald, ed. by Politischer Club Colonia (PCC) and the memorial in Buchenwald, Edition Akanthus, Spröda 1999 ISBN 978-3-00-006012-0
  • Günther Uecker. Zwanzig Kapitel, with contributions by Wulf Herzogenrath, Dieter Honisch, Britta Schmitz, Alexander Tolnay, Stephan von Wiese and Kazuhiro Yamamoto. Neuer Berliner Kunstverein / Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit 2005 ISBN 978-3-7757-1584-3
  • Jocks, Heinz-Norbert: Archäologie des Reisens, Ein anderer Blick auf Günther Uecker, DuMont, Cologne, 1997 ISBN 978-3-7701-3943-9
  • Gunther Uecker – Im Kreis Gehen Ouroboros, exhibition catalogue published by Har-El Printers & Publishers, Jaffa, 2018 ISBN 978-965-7191-09-5

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Günther Uecker". Deutscher Bundestag (in German). Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d Trinks, Stefan. "Stachel in unseren Augen". FAZ (in German). Retrieved 12 June 2025.
  3. ^ "Günther Uecker stellt wieder in Wismar aus". Hochschule Wismar (in German). 12 August 2008. Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d "Günther Uecker". SAK (in German). Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  5. ^ Trinks, Stefan (13 March 2020). "Der Zero- und Nagel-Künstler Günther Uecker wird neunzig". FAZ.NET (in German). Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  6. ^ "Günther Uecker". art gallery wiesbaden (in German). 31 March 2019. Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  7. ^ "Günther Uecker – ZERO foundation". ZERO foundation (in German). 20 May 2025. Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  8. ^ a b "Günther Uecker". Digitale Sammlung (in German). Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  9. ^ "Günther Uecker". The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation. 6 June 2025. Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  10. ^ "Günther Uecker / Arp Museum Rolandseck". Home / Arp Museum Rolandseck (in German). Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  11. ^ "Gunther Uecker (b. 1930), a-x Zero Garden". Christie's. 15 May 2012. Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  12. ^ "einer der wichtigsten deutschen Nachkriegskünstler". FOCUS online (in German). 10 June 2025. Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  13. ^ a b "Open Art Munich – Günther Uecker". Open Art Munich (in German). 3 April 2025. Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  14. ^ "GÜNTHER UECKER IN DÜSSELDORF". SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE FRANKFURT (in German). 15 February 2015. Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  15. ^ "Café Deutschland. Im Gespräch mit GÜNTHER UECKER". Café Deutschland. Im Gespräch mit der ersten Kunstszene der BRD (in German). Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  16. ^ "Halina Jaworski: Öffnet die Tore". mmk (in German). 5 July 2024. Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  17. ^ Kaernbach, Andreas. "Günther Uecker". Deutscher Bundestag (in German). Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  18. ^ "ZERO foundation". ZERO foundation. 2 May 2025. Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  19. ^ Glenn Adamson (15 November 2019). "Günther Uecker Nails It Again". Frieze.
  20. ^ a b "Landesbischöfin würdigt gestorbenen Künstler Günther Uecker". Die Welt (in German). 11 June 2025. Retrieved 11 June 2025.
  21. ^ Grieshaber, Kirsten (11 June 2025). "World-famous German "nail artist" Günther Uecker dies at 95". AP News. Retrieved 11 June 2025.
  22. ^ Alex Greenberger (10 June 2025). "Günther Uecker, ZERO Artist Who Made Abstractions from Nails, Dies at 95". ARTNews.
  23. ^ Günther Uecker Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
  24. ^ "Günther Uecker, The early years". Mnuchin Gallery. Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  25. ^ "15 expositions en galeries à ne pas manquer cet hiver à Paris". 18 January 2021.
  26. ^ "Günther Uecker". Mnuchin Gallery. Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  27. ^ Katya Kazakina (18 June 2014), Warhol Sells for $32 Million at Art Basel’s Rich Bull Run Bloomberg.
  28. ^ "Post-War Evening Sales results from London". christies.com. Retrieved 26 April 2024.
  29. ^ a b "Uecker". ORDEN POUR LE MÉRITE (in German). Retrieved 11 June 2025.
  30. ^ "Günther Uecker". Kunsthalle Mannheim (in German). 11 March 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2025.
  31. ^ "Europas Kulturzeitung". Lettre (in German). Retrieved 10 June 2025.
  32. ^ Richter, Max; Henckel von Donnersmarck, Florian (2019), Never look away original motion soundtrack : a film by Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck (in no linguistic content), [Europe], [France]: Universal music, [Universal music France], OCLC 1182598486
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