Renowned as a sculptor, set designer, and kinetic artist, Günther Uecker was born in 1930 in Wendorf, Mecklenburg, Germany. His artistic journey commenced with studies in Wismar and at the Berlin-Weissensee Academy between 1949 and 1953, initially embracing the style of Socialist Realism. In 1955, he pursued further education at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts studying with Otto Pankok. Subsequently, he started painting in white, black, and red, with a meticulous arrangement of vertical or horizontal dots and lines that enveloped the canvas entirely. That same year he started relief works in which he incorporated nails, marking the genesis of his experimental journey. This initial foray paved the way for a dynamic exploration, wherein he began to integrate diverse objects like corks or cardboard tubes onto the painting’s surface. The juxtaposition of the nail-studded texture against the painted backdrop served as a striking contrast but also afforded the artist to delve into the interplay of light and shadow. He transitioned from the regimented order of mathematical sequences of nails to the organic fluidity of structure.
By 1960, he started creating disc-shaped rotating configurations alongside his inaugural illuminated boxes (Light boxes). In 1960, Uecker co-founded the Group Zero alongside artists Heinz Mack, Otto Pine, and Yves Klein. Diverging from the prevailing German informal art movement, the Group Zero advocated for a distinct artistic approach. As an integral member of this avant-garde collective, Uecker directed his focus towards experimentation with the medium of light. Studying optical phenomena, he explored series of structures and oscillation that actively engaged the viewer, inviting them to participate in the visual experience through kinetic or manual interventions. The trio of artists, albeit diminished by Klein’s passing in 1962, forged a close working relationship, establishing joint studios at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam by 1962. Shortly thereafter, they curated a Salon de Lumière at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Paris. They continued to showcase their innovative light installations in successive “light salons” across cities like Krefeld and Frankfurt. Interested in movement, the kinetic art pursued by the group has unprecedented points of contact with science and technology, also revealing hooks with Dadaism and Futurism. Group Zero, soon became a point of reference and inspiration for many European trends of those years, such as Group T and Group N in Italy and various experimentations of Optical Art throughout Europe.
Beginning in 1966, after the dissolution of the group and a final group exhibition, Uecker increasingly used nails as a means of artistic expression – a material that, to this day, is central to his work. In the early 1960s, as already mentioned, the artist had begun to plant nails on furniture, musical instruments, and household objects, and combined them with the theme of light, creating the Chiodi Leggeri and Chiodi Cinetici series and other works.
The 1966 artwork a-x Zero Garden, now housed in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art, serves as a prime example of Uecker’s utilization of nails to evoke a sense of dynamic motion. Throughout his artistic evolution, Uecker remained steadfast in his exploration of light and electricity, with the latter becoming a prominent motif from 1966 onward. Furthermore, Uecker incorporated natural elements like sand and water into his installations, fostering an intricate interplay among various components to evoke sensations of luminosity, spatiality, motion, and temporality.
Uecker’s work ranges from paintings and art objects to installations, monochrome relief prints, films, sets and costumes for productions such as Fidelio (1974) and Parsifal (1976), as well as for Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin in Bayreuth (1979-1982). Additionally, he undertook the prestigious commission to design the prayer room for the reconstructed Reichstag building in Berlin in 2000. From 1974 to 1995, the artist taught at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf and was promoted to professor in 1976. With Otto Piene, Heinz Mack, and Mattijs Visser, he co-founded the ZERO International Foundation in 2008. This foundation serves as the comprehensive archives of these three artists from Düsseldorf, alongside preserving documents and photographs of other affiliated artists.
In addition to the prominent exhibitions associated with Group Zero, Uecker actively participated in a myriad of significant events, including Documenta 4 in Kassel in 1968 and the Venice Biennale in 1970. His artistic journey was further punctuated by numerous solo exhibitions, such as the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf in 1983, a retrospective at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung in Munich in 1990, and another solo exhibition at the Ulmer Museum in Ulm in 2010. Uecker held his inaugural solo exhibition in the United States at the Howard Wise Gallery, presenting major works like the kinetic masterpiece New York Dancer I from 1966. In 2021, in a solo exhibition at the Lévy Gorvy Gallery in Paris entitled Lichtbogen he presented a new series of artworks inspired by a visit to an island in the Strait of Ormuz.
Uecker’s works can be found in the collections of major institutions around the world, including: the ZERO Foundation and the Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf, the Fondazione Calderara Collection in Milan, the Courtauld Institute of Art, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Schleswig-Holstein Museums (Germany), Studio Esseci (Padua, Italy), the Stedelijk Museum, the Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven, Netherlands), the Von der Heydt-Museum (Wuppertal, Germany), MoMA, The Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Centre Pompidou, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, and the Walker Art Center.