Günther Uecker, also known as Guenther Uecker, (born 13 March 1930) is a German sculptor, op art

Op art

Op art, also known as optical art, is a style of visual art that makes use of optical illusions."Optical art is a method of painting concerning the interaction between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and seeing." Op art works are abstract, with many of the better known pieces made...

ist and 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...

ist.

Biography

Uecker was born in Wendorf

Wendorf

Wendorf is a municipality in the Vorpommern-Rügen district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany....

, Mecklenburg

Mecklenburg

Mecklenburg is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...

. Uecker began his artistic education in 1949 when he took up studies at Wismar

Wismar

Wismar , is a small port and Hanseatic League town in northern Germany on the Baltic Sea, in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,about 45 km due east of Lübeck, and 30 km due north of Schwerin. Its natural harbour, located in the Bay of Wismar is well-protected by a promontory. The...

. He then went to the art school in Berlin-Weißensee

Berlin-Weißensee

Weissensee is a locality in the borough of Pankow in Berlin, Germany, named for the small lake Weißer See within it. Before Berlin's 2001 administrative reform, Weissensee was a borough in its own right, consisting of the localities of Weissensee, Heinersdorf, Blankenburg, Karow and...

 and in 1955 to Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

, where he studied under Otto Pankok

Otto Pankok

Otto Pankok was a German painter, printmaker, and sculptor.-Biography:He was born in Mülheim on the Ruhr. In 1912 he began his formal training as an artist at the Art Academies in Düsseldorf and Weimar...

 at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf

The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, formerly Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, is the Arts Academy of the city of Düsseldorf. It is well known for having produced many famous artists, such as Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Thomas Demand, and Andreas Gursky...

. In 1956 he began using nails in his art.

Uecker met the group ZERO with Heinz Mack

Heinz Mack

Heinz Mack is a German artist. Together with Otto Piene he founded the ZERO movement in 1957. He exhibited works at documenta in 1964 and 1977 and he represented Germany at the 1970 Venice Biennale. He is best known for his contributions to op art, light art and kinetic art.- Biography :Heinz Mack...

 and Otto Piene

Otto Piene

Otto Piene is a German artist. He lives and works in Düsseldorf and Groton, Massachusetts.-Biography:...

 in 1960, artists who propagated a new beginning of art in opposition to the German Informel. He occupied himself with the medium of light, studied optical phenomena, series of structures and the realms of oscillation that actively integrate the viewer and enable him to influence the visual process by kinetic or manual interference. Uecker, Mack and Piene

Otto Piene

Otto Piene is a German artist. He lives and works in Düsseldorf and Groton, Massachusetts.-Biography:...

 began working together in joint studios at the Stedelijk Museum

Stedelijk Museum

Founded in 1874, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is a museum for classic modern and contemporary art in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It has been housed on the Paulus Potterstraat, next to Museum Square Museumplein and to the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and the Concertgebouw, in Amsterdam Zuid...

 in Amsterdam in 1962 and installed a 'Salon de Lumière' at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Other 'light salons' followed in Krefeld and in Frankfurt. Since 1966, after the group ZERO dissolved and a last joint exhibition, Uecker increasingly used nails as an artistic means of expression—a material that, until today, stands in the centre of his oeuvre. At the beginning of the 1960s he began hammering nails into pieces of furniture, musical instruments and household objects, and then he began combining nails with the theme of light, creating his series of light nails and kinetic nails and other works. Light and electricity continued to be one of the main subjects and natural materials such as sand and water were included in his installations, resulting in an interaction of the different elements to create a sensation of light, space, movement and time. Uecker's oeuvre includes painting, object art, installations as well as stage designs and films. His origins explain his interest in the eastern European avant-garde of the 1920s and 1930s, but he is likewise interested in Asian cultures and their ideas. His works can be seen in collections and large fairs in the West as well as the East. Uecker's artistic creativity reaches a climax in 2000 in the prayer room he designs for the rebuilt Reichstag building in Berlin.

The ZERO foundation and Museum Kunst Palast

Museum kunst palast

The Museum Kunstpalast is an art museum in Düsseldorf, Germany.- History :The Museum Kunst Palast was founded as Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, a typical communal arts collection in Germany. The first exhibits were given by the popular regent Jan Wellem, Duke of Palatinate, and his wife Anna Maria Luisa...

 (Düsseldorf), The Calderara Foundation Collection (Milan, Italy), the Courtauld Institute of Art

Courtauld Institute of Art

The Courtauld Institute of Art is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art. The Courtauld is one of the premier centres for the teaching of art history in the world; it was the only History of Art department in the UK to be awarded a top...

 (London), the Honolulu Academy of Arts

Honolulu Academy of Arts

The Honolulu Academy of Arts is an art museum in Honolulu in the state of Hawaii. Since its founding in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke and opening April 8, 1927, its collections have grown to over 40,000 works of art.-Description:...

, the Schleswig-Holstein Museums (Germany), Studio Esseci (Padua, Italy), Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Van Abbemuseum

Van Abbemuseum

Van Abbemuseum is a museum of modern and contemporary art located in central Eindhoven, Netherlands, on the east bank of the Dommel river. Established in 1936, the Abbe Museum is named after its founder, Abbe Henri. Abbe was a lover of modern art and wanted to enjoy it there from Eindhoven...

 (Eindhoven, Netherlands), Von der Heydt-Museum (Wuppertal, Germany) and the Walker Art Center

Walker Art Center

The Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...

 (Minnesota) are among the public collections holding works by Günther Uecker.

Uecker taught from 1974 until 1995 at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf

The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, formerly Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, is the Arts Academy of the city of Düsseldorf. It is well known for having produced many famous artists, such as Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Thomas Demand, and Andreas Gursky...

 and was promoted to professor in 1976. Halina Jaworski

Halina Jaworski

Halina Jaworski is a German artist and abstract painter.She lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany since 1973.-Biography:...

 was his first master student (Meisterschülerin).

With Otto Piene

Otto Piene

Otto Piene is a German artist. He lives and works in Düsseldorf and Groton, Massachusetts.-Biography:...

, Heinz Mack and Mattijs Visser

Mattijs visser

Mat Visser is an organiser of art exhibitions and performances. He studied architecture in Delft, Holland, founded the Troubleyn theatre company in 1986 in Antwerp with Jan Fabre. and the Angelos Foundation...

 he founded in 2008 the international ZERO foundation. The foundation has the complet ZERO archives from three Düsseldorfer artists as well as documents and photos from other related artist.

External links

• ZERO foundation
• ZERO group