Günther Uecker
Günther Uecker ( born March 13, 1930 in Wendorf, Pomerania ) is a German painter and object artist of international stature. He became famous especially with its relief-like nail pictures. A part of his artistic objects can be assigned to kinetic art.
Life and work
Uecker, who grew up on the peninsula Wustrow, where his father was employed as an engineer and ground staff on a test airfield of the aviation industry, witnessed there the end of the Second World War. He studied from 1949 to 1953 at Wismar and at the Art Academy in Berlin- Weissensee. On the occasion of the World Youth Festival in 1951 in East Berlin, he used the first time the opportunity for visits of West Berlin and came into contact with abstract art. 1953, after the uprising of June 17, he left the GDR and moved to West Berlin. There he dealt with religion and philosophy, which should affect his work. [Note 1] Because he wanted to study with his idol Otto Pankok, he went in 1955 to West Germany. This was about the refugee camp for male juvenile GDR refugees Sandbostel, where he was interrogated as a supposedly from the GDR infiltrated by its own account for months. He then continued from 1955 to 1957 studied at the Dusseldorf Art Academy in gasoline Pankok continued. 1956/1957 came the first time his typical nail images: three-dimensional, white painted reliefs from nails that obtained by the alignment of the nails and the interaction of light and shade their own dynamics. Starting in 1962, knew Uecker everyday objects such as furniture with nail reliefs.
In 1961, Uecker a member of the founded by Heinz Mack and Otto Piene artist group ZERO, and he also turned the kinetic light art. Together with Gerhard Richter he staged the demonstration "Museums can be livable places ". The performance of the terrorist orchestra at the Kunsthalle Baden -Baden, a noisy installation of 20 machines, vacuum cleaners, washing drum and a hammer and sickle, attracted nationwide attention.
Together with Thomas Lenk, Heinz Mack and Georg Karl Pfahler was Uecker 1970 German representative at the Venice Biennale. From 1971 to 1974 made working visits to South America, Africa and Asia, 1984-1985 stays in Japan, Siberia, China, Iceland and Mongolia. Since the 1980s, he takes in his work on political issues: for example, he responded to the Chernobyl disaster with the cycle " ash pictures". Additional implications are found in his works about Iraq, environmental issues and other things.
From 1974 to 1995 Uecker taught as a professor at the Art Academy in Dusseldorf. Among his pupils were masters Halina Jaworski, Klaus Schmitt and Matthias Hintz. In 1999 he designed the chapel in the new Reichstag building in Berlin. In 2004 he designed the open-air stage for a performance of William Tell by Schiller on - supposedly - the historic site on the Rütliwiese.
In December 2008, Uecker was co-founder of Zero foundation Foundation. Other founders were the ZERO artists Heinz Mack and Otto Piene and the museum kunst palace The Foundation has its headquarters in Düsseldorf Media Harbour; it has set itself the goal to get ZERO movement, to present, to explore and promote
Uecker now lives and works in Dusseldorf and St. Gallen. A studio is also located in Berlin's Atlantic Garden City of the architect Rudolf Frankel.
Uecker is the brother of the artist Rotraut and brother of the late artist Yves Klein.