IMAGE DETAILS

Boon Gallery

Günther Uecker (Germany, Wendorf 1930)
Wind, 2005
Nails and oil on canvas laid down on wood
200 x 160 cm
Signed on reverse
This artwork is registered in the Uecker Archiv with the number GU.05.011 and will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné

Günther Uecker has for six decades developed his reliefs comprising dynamic arrangements of nails. Born in 1930 in Wendorf, Germany, Uecker studied at the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee and Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, where he lives and works today. In the 1950s, influenced by Eastern philosophy and Gregorian chanting, he began a ritual of hammering nails. These materials signify protection and creation to the artist, who remembers nailing planks over the windows of his home to deter Soviet troops after the Second World War. By 1957, he was hammering nails onto canvas to achieve a 'sundial' optical effect, casting light and shadow in ephemeral patterns.

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.

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; Guggenheim and MoMa in New York; Museum Ludwig in Cologne; Centre Pompidou in Paris; Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam; and Tate Modern in London.