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Virtuoso nail paintings by the ZERO artist from Düsseldorf
With his unique nail paintings and embossed prints, Günther Uecker is considered one of the great style-defining German artists of the present day. Since the late 1950s, he has been creating the three-dimensional, white-painted reliefs made of nails that are so typical of him. Through the alignment of the nails and the interaction of light and shadow, he creates an oeuvre of particular dynamism, elegance and expressiveness. His works also radiate a zen-like poetry and tranquillity that stands in stark contrast to the hard and robust everyday materials of his works.
Complete works, museum exhibitions and honors
Uecker’s oeuvre encompasses painting, object art, installations, stage designs and films. A highlight of his artistic work is the devotional space he designed in the Reichstag building in Berlin between 1998 and 2000.
Uecker took part in the documenta in Kassel three times with his works and twice represented the new German art at the Venice Biennale. In 1974, he was appointed professor at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf, where he taught until 1995. Uecker has received numerous awards, such as the Federal Cross of Merit with Star and the Berlin Bear. From October 2014 to January 2015, the Guggenheim Museum New York showed the works of the ZERO group in a solo exhibition that attracted worldwide attention. In 2015, the city of Düsseldorf also honored Günther Uecker with a retrospective of his works at K20.
Valuable objects with a future: Uecker originals, Uecker embossed prints, Uecker editions
Uecker’s works have experienced a rapid increase in value in recent years. Step by step, international collectors and auction houses have also come to appreciate his works in line with the “big names” in the industry such as Polke, Kiefer and Richter. As a result, his works are still considered a safe investment from an investor’s point of view.
Awards and honors
1964:
– Promotion Prize of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia for Fine Arts, Germany
1983:
– Kaiserring of the city of Goslar, Germany
1985:
– Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class, Germany
2001:
– Grand Federal Cross of Merit with Star, Germany
2006:
– Berlin Bear (B.Z. Culture Prize), Berlin, Germany
2010:
– Jan-Wellem-Ring, Düsseldorf, Germany
2011:
– Cologne Fine Art Award, Cologne, Germany
Exhibitions and art fairs
1960:
– ZERO- Edition, Exposition, Demonstration, Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf, Germany
1962:
– Heinz Mack, Otto Piene et Günther Uecker – Dynamo, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium
– Nul, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1964:
– documenta III, Kassel, Germany
– ZERO. Mack Piene Uecker, Kestner Society, Hanover, Germany
– The Responsive Eye, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
1968:
– 4th documenta, Kassel, Germany
1972:
– Scene Rhine-Ruhr 72, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
– Amsterdam Paris Düsseldorf, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
1977:
– documenta 6, Kassel, Germany
1982:
– Art becomes material, National Gallery, Berlin, Germany
1992:
– Lenz Schönberg Collection, Galeria Zacheta, Warsaw, Poland
– Exhibition for the Day of German Unity, Staatliches Museum, Schwerin, Germany
– Uecker, Museum of Modern Art, Vienna, Austria
2002:
– Loss of Culture, German National Theater, Weimar, Germany
– Water Sand Expanse, Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
– Günther Uecker – New Works, Akira Ikeda Gallery, Berlin, Germany
– Günther Uecker – Dialog, Museum Moderne Kunst, Passau, Germany
2005:
– Twenty Chapters, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
– Terrororchester – Hommage à John Cage, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen, Germany
– Forms of the Kinetic, Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland
– Crossart. Van Gogh to Beuys, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle, Bonn, Germany
2008:
– Sound of Art. Music in the visual arts, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria
– The thin shadow line, Fondazione Mudima, Mudima, Itlay
– Druckstelle, State Art Collection, Dresden, Germany
– Sotto Voce, Yvon Lambert Gallery, New York, USA
– ZERO lives, Kunsthalle Weishaupt, Ulm, Germany
2012:
– Enrico Castellani e Günther Uecker, Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna Ca’Pesaro, Venice, Italy
– End of the Earth: Land Art to 1974, MoCA, Los Angeles, USA
– Departure. Painting and Real Space, Akademie der Künste and Kunsthalle Rostock, Berlin, Germany
– Injuries – Connections, Museum of Contemporary Art Tehran – TMoCA, Tehran, Iran
2016:
– Günther Uecker – DER GESCHUNDENE MENSCH, Kunsthalle Rostock, Rostock, Germany
– Homage to Hafez, Tar-o-Pood Gallery, Shiraz, Iran
– ZERO IS GOOD FOR YOU. Mack, Piene, Uecker in Bonn 1966/2016, LVR-LandesMuseum, Bonn, Germany
After joining the ZERO group of artists founded by Otto Piene and Heinz Mack in 1961, Günther Uecker also turned to kinetic light art and was soon regarded as the real star of the group, which stood for a new beginning in art against German Art Informel. From the early 1960s, but especially from 1966, after the dissolution of ZERO and a final joint exhibition, Uecker used nails as his main creative medium – a material that remains at the heart of his work to this day.
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