GÜNTHER UECKER

By 1957, he was hammering nails onto canvas to achieve a ‘sundial’ optical effect, casting light and shadow in ephemeral patterns. Soon, he integrated lightboxes, rotating discs, television sets, and chairs (Stuhl, 1963) into his nail sculptures. In 1961, Uecker joined Heinz Mack and Otto Piene in the anti-expressionist movement Group Zero, which prioritised expanding beyond the traditional dimensions of the canvas into kinetic, serial, and participatory realms. After the group’s dissolution in 1966, Uecker’s work incorporated aspects of conceptual and land art, and he began designing stage sets for operas. Among his public works are From Darkness to Light at the United Nations, Geneva (1978) and a Reflection and Prayer Room for the Reichstag, Berlin (2000). In 2020, he embarked on his series Lichtbogen, minimalist paintings of radiant blue-and-white arcs.

Uecker’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at museums worldwide. Retrospectives of his work have been organised by the Central House of Artists, Moscow (1988) and Kunsthalle München (1993), and he participated in Documenta (1964, 1968, 1977) and the 1970 Venice Biennale. His work resides in such collections as the Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Museum of Modern Art, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and Tate Modern, London. Among his many honors are the Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts (2000) and the Staatspreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (2015).

Courtesy Lévy Gorvy Dayan