FERDINAND SPINDEL

He becomes a member of the Union of German Artists in 1957. Since 1963 he shapes the image of the established Gelsenkirchener artists commune Halfmannshoff significantly also as chairman from 1965 to 1969 and as substitute chairman from1970 to 1973. In this context, Spindel establishes an early contact to the ZEROgroup and exhibits alongside them.

After his generallynon-representational works of the 50s, in 1963, Spindel discovers the use of everyday materials and devotes himself almostexclusively to foam material. At the beginning of this phase he destroysthe majority of his younger works. It is the aesthetic of this soft,malleable material, both in monochrome, as well as in its respectiveoriginal colour, that will henceforth be fundamental throughout hisœuvre. The attempt to firmly establish this material as a carrier ofimages takes the effect of light and space into consideration, whereby ashared artistic ground with the body of thought of ZERO is madeevident. In 1964 he receives the art award from the city of Gelsenkirchen. He is listed in the artist group B 1 beetween 1969 and 1970.

In 1972 he is honoured with the Konrad-von-Soest award from the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe. From the 1970s, a renewed confrontation with his earlier, almost sculptural pencildrawings is discernable, and their proximity to the material structureof the foam is sharply apparent. In 1973 he moves to Nuenkirchen nearSoltau in the Luneburg Heath region, where he dies in 1980.