Elke Rehder
Encyclopedia
Elke Rehder is a German artist living in Barsbüttel Germany.
in London (1979–80). During that time she was predominantly active as a sculptor, where she created objects from iron, steel, copper, granite, marble as well as small bronzes in lost-wax castings. During her stay in London the symbolism of chess
becomes a centrepoint in her artwork, following a statement by Boris Spassky
: "Chess is like life". Since then, Elke Rehder creates installation art
and land art
projects centered around chess.
In 1991 Elke Rehder started the international cultural project "Kulturgesellschaft Europa", which is accompanied by statements of important personalities from the cultural, economical and political world.
1992 she was honored with the award "Bernhard-Kaufmann-Kunstpreis" in Worpswede
.
From 1991 to 1993 she deepened her knowledge of painting
at the Federal Academy of Cultural Education in Wolfenbüttel and of graphic arts
at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences
.
and founded the Elke Rehder Presse for printmaking. With her artists' books she participated several times at the Leipzig Book Fair
, the Frankfurt Book Fair
and the largest book fair for small publishers and artistic hand press operators in Europe "Mainzer Minipressen-Messe". At the international antiquarian book and arts fair "Quod Libet" in Hamburg she presented a portfolio with etchings to The Trial
by Franz Kafka
and woodcuts to The Royal Game
by Stefan Zweig
. Beside her fine press publications Elke Rehder creates numerous painted books, book objects and paper art objects.
, British Library
, Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum, (Leipzig, Germany), Museum of Modern Literature
(Marbach, Germany), Duchess Anna Amalia Library
, German National Library
, Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Nuremberg, Germany), Goethe University Frankfurt, Herzog August Bibliothek
, John G. White Collection in the Cleveland Public Library
, Klingspor Museum
, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National Library of the Netherlands, Library of Congress
, Lothar Schmid
Chess Collection (Bamberg, Germany), Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum
, Saxon State Library
, Swiss National Library
, Württembergische Landesbibliothek
(Stuttgart, Germany)
Life and work
Elke Rehder studied at the Heatherley School of Fine ArtHeatherley School of Fine Art
The Heatherley School of Fine Art was named after Thomas Heatherley who took over as principal from James Mathews Leigh . Founded in 1845, the school is affectionately known as Heatherley's...
in London (1979–80). During that time she was predominantly active as a sculptor, where she created objects from iron, steel, copper, granite, marble as well as small bronzes in lost-wax castings. During her stay in London the symbolism of chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
becomes a centrepoint in her artwork, following a statement by Boris Spassky
Boris Spassky
Boris Vasilievich Spassky is a Soviet-French chess grandmaster. He was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from late 1969 to 1972...
: "Chess is like life". Since then, Elke Rehder creates installation art
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
and land art
Land art
Land art, Earthworks , or Earth art is an art movement which emerged in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, in which landscape and the work of art are inextricably linked...
projects centered around chess.
In 1991 Elke Rehder started the international cultural project "Kulturgesellschaft Europa", which is accompanied by statements of important personalities from the cultural, economical and political world.
1992 she was honored with the award "Bernhard-Kaufmann-Kunstpreis" in Worpswede
Worpswede
Worpswede is a municipality in the district of Osterholz, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Teufelsmoor, northeast of Bremen. The small town itself is located near the Weyerberg hill. It has been the home to a lively artistic community since the end of the 19th century, with over 130...
.
From 1991 to 1993 she deepened her knowledge of painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
at the Federal Academy of Cultural Education in Wolfenbüttel and of graphic arts
Graphic arts
A type of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of art forms. Graphic art is typically two-dimensional and includes calligraphy, photography, drawing, painting, printmaking, lithography, typography, serigraphy , and bindery. Graphic art also consists of drawn plans and layouts for interior...
at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences
Hamburg University of Applied Sciences
The Hamburg University of Applied Sciences is an institution of higher education and applied research located in Hamburg, Germany. Formerly known as Fachhochschule Hamburg the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences was founded in 1970...
.
Artists' books
Since 1993 Elke Rehder concentrates on literature and lyric poetryLyric poetry
Lyric poetry is a genre of poetry that expresses personal and emotional feelings. In the ancient world, lyric poems were those which were sung to the lyre. Lyric poems do not have to rhyme, and today do not need to be set to music or a beat...
and founded the Elke Rehder Presse for printmaking. With her artists' books she participated several times at the Leipzig Book Fair
Leipzig Book Fair
The Leipzig Book Fair is the second largest book fair in Germany after the Frankfurt Book Fair. The fair takes place annually over four days at the Leipzig Trade Fairground in the northern part of Leipzig, Saxony...
, the Frankfurt Book Fair
Frankfurt Book Fair
The Frankfurt Book Fair is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. As to the number of visitors, the Turin Book Fair attracts about as many visitors, viz. some 300,000....
and the largest book fair for small publishers and artistic hand press operators in Europe "Mainzer Minipressen-Messe". At the international antiquarian book and arts fair "Quod Libet" in Hamburg she presented a portfolio with etchings to The Trial
The Trial
The Trial is a novel by Franz Kafka, first published in 1925. One of Kafka's best-known works, it tells the story of a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, with the nature of his crime revealed neither to him nor the reader.Like Kafka's other novels, The Trial was never...
by Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
and woodcuts to The Royal Game
The Royal Game
The Royal Game is a novella by Austrian author Stefan Zweig first published in 1942, after the author's death by suicide...
by Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most famous writers in the world.- Biography :...
. Beside her fine press publications Elke Rehder creates numerous painted books, book objects and paper art objects.
Solo exhibitions (selected)
- 1992 Reinbek Castle, Reinbek, Germany
- 1993 Federal Ministry of Economics and TechnologyFederal Ministry of Economics and Technology (Germany)The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology is a ministry of the German Federal Government since 1998...
, Bonn / Berlin, Germany - 1993 Gallery Art und Weise, Heide, Germany
- 1995 Stichting Ateliers, Driebergen, Netherlands
- 1999 Eutiner Landesbibliothek, Eutin, Germany
- 2000 Gallery Silvia Umla, Völklingen, Germany
- 2001 Haus der Kultur und Bildung, Neubrandenburg, Germany
- 2003 Beeskow Castle, Beeskow, Germany
- 2003 Saarland UniversitySaarland UniversitySaarland University is a university located in Saarbrücken, the capital of the German state of Saarland, and Homburg. It was founded in 1948 in Homburg in co-operation with France and is organized in 8 faculties that cover all major fields of science...
, Saarbrücken, Germany - 2006 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek, Hanover, Germany
Group exhibitions (selected)
- 1995 Provinciaal Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Oostend, Belgium
- 1997 Kunsthalle DüsseldorfKunsthalle Düsseldorf-Building:The present art centre was built in 1967 in Brutalist architecture by the architects Konrad Beckmann and Brockes. They used commercially available precast concrete for the construction work.-History:...
, Düsseldorf, Germany - 1997 Internationale Kunstmesse "Kunstmarkt Dresden", Dresden, Germany
- 1998 Austrian National LibraryAustrian National LibraryThe Austrian National Library , is the largest library in Austria, with 7.4 million items in its collections. It is located in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna; since 2005 some of the collections are located in the baroque Palais Mollard-Clary...
, Vienna, Austria - 1998 Gallery Lang, Vienna, Austria
- 1998 PAPER ART exhibition SpeicherstadtSpeicherstadtThe Speicherstadt in Hamburg, Germany is the largest timber-pile founded warehouse district in the world. It is located in the port of Hamburg—within the HafenCity quarter—and was built from 1883 to 1927.The district was built as a free zone to transfer goods without paying customs...
, Hamburg, Germany - 1999 Germanisches NationalmuseumGermanisches NationalmuseumThe Germanisches Nationalmuseum is a museum in Nuremberg, Germany. Founded in 1852, houses a large collection of items relating to German culture and art extending from prehistoric times through to the present day...
, Nuremberg, Germany - 2003 6th Triennale Mondiale d'Estampes, Chamalières, France
- 2005 Museum für Kunst und GewerbeMuseum für Kunst und Gewerbe HamburgThe Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe is a museum of fine, applied and decorative arts in Hamburg, Germany. It is located centrally, near the Hauptbahnhof.-History:...
, Hamburg, Germany - 2009 State Library of Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel, Germany
Works in collections (selected)
Basel University LibraryBasel University Library
The University Library of Basle is one of the biggest libraries in Switzerland. It is located at the University of Basel, at 18 – 20 Schönbeinstrasse. It is also Kantonsbibliothek of Basel-City....
, British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
, Deutsches Buch- und Schriftmuseum, (Leipzig, Germany), Museum of Modern Literature
Museum of Modern Literature
The Museum of Modern Literature or LiMo is part of the German Literature Archive in Marbach am Neckar, Germany...
(Marbach, Germany), Duchess Anna Amalia Library
Duchess Anna Amalia Library
The Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar, Thuringia, Germany, houses a major collection of German literature and historical documents...
, German National Library
German National Library
The German National Library is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany...
, Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Nuremberg, Germany), Goethe University Frankfurt, Herzog August Bibliothek
Herzog August Bibliothek
The Herzog August Library , in Wolfenbüttel, , known also as Bibliotheca Augusta, it has an international importance for its collection from the Middle Ages and Early modern Europe. The library is overseen by the Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture...
, John G. White Collection in the Cleveland Public Library
Cleveland Public Library
The Cleveland Public Library was founded in 1869 and is located in Cleveland, Ohio. It operates the Main Library on Superior Avenue in downtown Cleveland, 28 branches throughout the city, a mobile library, a Public Administration Library in City Hall, and a library for the blind and physically...
, Klingspor Museum
Klingspor Museum
The Klingspor-Museum is a museum in Offenbach, Germany, for the art of modern book production, typography and type. It includes a collection of the fine art books from Karl Klingspor, one of the owners of Gebr...
, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National Library of the Netherlands, Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, Lothar Schmid
Lothar Schmid
Lothar Maximilian Lorenz Schmid is a German chess grandmaster who was born in Dresden. He is best known as the arbiter of several World Chess Championship matches...
Chess Collection (Bamberg, Germany), Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum
Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum
Museum Meermanno | House of the Book, formerly called Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum, is a museum named after Willem Hendrik Jacob van Westreenen van Tiellandt on the Prinsessegracht 30 in The Hague...
, Saxon State Library
Saxon State Library
The Saxon State Library in Dresden is the Staatsbibliothek of Saxony and the academic library of the Technische Universität Dresden. It is one of the main public archival centers of Germany. Its treasures, collected over four centuries, were located in the Japanisches Palais and in temporary...
, Swiss National Library
Swiss National Library
The Swiss National Library is the national library of Switzerland. It is part of the Federal Office of Culture. Under the terms of the law which governs it, it is charged with collecting, cataloging and conserving information in all fields and disciplines, and in any medium, connected with...
, Württembergische Landesbibliothek
Württembergische Landesbibliothek
The Württembergische Landesbibliothek is a large library in Stuttgart, Germany, which traces its history back to the ducal public library of Württemberg, founded in 1765. It holds c. 3.4 million volumes and is thus the fourth-largest library in the state of Baden-Württemberg...
(Stuttgart, Germany)