Günther Uecker (; 13 March 1930 – 10 June 2025) was a German painter, sculptor,

op art Op art, short for optical art, is a style of visual art that uses distorted or manipulated geometrical patterns, often to create optical illusions. It began in the early 20th century, and was especially popular from the 1960s on, the term "Op ...

ist, and

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific art, site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior intervent ...

ist. He became known primarily for his nail reliefs. In 1961, Uecker joined the

ZERO 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. Adding (or subtracting) 0 to any number leaves that number unchanged; in mathematical terminology, 0 is the additive identity of the integers, rational numbers, real numbers, and compl ...

group.

Early life and education

Uecker was born on 13 March 1930 in Wendorf,

Mecklenburg Mecklenburg (; ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin, Neubrandenburg, Wismar and Güstrow. ...

. He grew up on a farm. At the end of World War II, he had to nail doors and windows to protect his mother and sister. Russian soldiers forced him, then age 15, to recover bodies that had been washed to the shore of the Baltic Sea. Uecker began his artistic education in 1949 when he took up studies at

Wismar Wismar (; ), officially the Hanseatic City of Wismar () is, with around 43,000 inhabitants, the sixth-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the fourth-largest city of Mecklenburg after Rostock, Schwerin and ...

in 1952. He then went to the art school in Berlin-Weißensee, where he was educated in

social realism Social realism is work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers, filmmakers and some musicians that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structures ...

, including work on a statue of Lenin 20 meters high. He was dismissed from the institution. After the

East German uprising of 1953 The East German uprising of 1953 ( ) was an uprising that occurred over the course of two days in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 16 to 17 June 1953. It began with strike action by construction workers in East Berlin on 16 June ...

, he escaped to the West. He settled in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

where he studied under Otto Pankok at the

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at the academy include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Blinky Palermo, Ma ...

. In 1956, he began integrating nails in his art.

Career

Uecker 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. In 1960, he met with group ZERO members

Heinz Mack Heinz Mack (born 8 March 1931) is a German artist. Together with Otto Piene he founded the Zero (art), 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 k ...

and

Otto Piene Otto Piene (, 18 April 1928 – 17 July 2014) was a German-American artist specializing in kinetic art, kinetic and technology-based art, often working collaboratively. He lived and worked in Düsseldorf, Germany; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and G ...

, who propagated a new beginning of art in opposition to the German

Informel Informalism or Art Informel () is a Painting, pictorial movement from the 1943–1950s, that includes all the Abstract painting, abstract and Action painting, gestural tendencies that developed in France and the rest of Europe during the World W ...

. Uecker, Mack and Piene began working together in joint studios at the

Stedelijk Museum The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

in Amsterdam in 1962 and installed a 'Salon de Lumière' at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Other 'light salons' followed in

Krefeld Krefeld ( , ; ), also spelled Crefeld until 1925 (though the spelling was still being used in British papers throughout the Second World War), is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, its c ...

and in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

. Beginning in 1966, after the group ZERO dissolved its last joint exhibition, Uecker increasingly began using nails as an artistic means of expression —- a material that, until today, stands in the centre of his oeuvre. He began hammering nails into pieces of furniture, musical instruments as well as household objects, combining nails with the theme of light and creating his series of light nails and kinetic nails and other works. ''a-x Zero Garden'' (1966), in the collection of the

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. It has one of the largest single co ...

, demonstrates his use of nails to create the illusion of movement. Light and electricity continued to be 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 included painting, object art, installations as well as stage designs and films. His origins explained his interest in the eastern European avant-garde of the 1920s and 1930s, but he was likewise interested in Asian cultures and their ideas. In 1974, Uecker began teaching at the

and was promoted to professor in 1976. He became professor at the Academy, alongside

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( ; ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and Aesthetics, art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism and sociology. With Heinrich Böll, , Caroline Tisdall, Rober ...

and Klaus Rinke. He taught there until 1995. was his first master student (). Uecker's artistic creativity reached a climax in 2000 in he designed for the rebuilt

Reichstag building The Reichstag (; ) is a historic legislative government building on Platz der Republik in Berlin that is the seat of the German Bundestag. It is also the meeting place of the Federal Convention, which elects the President of Germany. The Ne ...

in Berlin. With

, and

Mattijs Visser Mat(tijs) Visser (born 1958 in The Hague, Netherlands) studied architecture in Delft, the Netherlands and is since then an organiser of performances and art exhibitions. He was head of exhibitions at Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf for eight y ...

, he founded in 2008 the international ZERO foundation. The foundation has the complete ZERO archives from three Düsseldorfer artists as well as documents and photos from other related artists. Uecker was active through his last years; Glenn Adamson of ''

Frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

'' reported that, even when Uecker was 90 years old, he was still working seven days a week, six hours a day, in the Düsseldorf studio he had held since 1987. The blue stained glass windows in

Schwerin Cathedral Schwerin Cathedral () is an Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral located in the town of Schwerin, Germany. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Saint John. Along with St. Mary's Church, Lübeck and St. Nicholas' Church, Stralsund, it is one of th ...

were among one of his last works. In December 2024, the windows were inaugurated. Uecker died on 10 June 2025 at the University Hospital of Düsseldorf, aged 95.

Exhibitions

In addition to numerous Gruppo Zero exhibitions, Uecker participated in many other exhibitions, including documenta 4 in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

, Germany (1968), the 35th

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

(1970), and numerous solo shows, including one at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (1983), a retrospective at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich (1990), and another solo show at the Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany (2010). He had his first solo exhibition in the United States at the Howard Wise Gallery on West 57th Street, showing important work such as the kinetic ''New York Dancer I'' (1966). He designed the scenery for

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

's ''

Lohengrin Lohengrin () is a character in German Arthurian literature. The son of Parzival (Percival), he is a knight of the Holy Grail sent in a boat pulled by swans to rescue a maiden who can never ask his identity. His story, which first appears in Wo ...

'' at Bayreuth (1979–82). His first solo show since 1968 took place in early 2021 at the Lévy Gorvy gallery in Paris, called ''Lichtbogen,'' where he presented a new set of art inspired by a visit to an island in the

Strait of Hormuz The Strait of Hormuz ( ''Tangeh-ye Hormoz'' , ''Maḍīq Hurmuz'') is a strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and is one of the world's most strategica ...

. Uecker's work can be found in the collections of major institutions worldwide, among them: the ZERO foundation and Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf; Calderara Foundation Collection, Milan;

Courtauld Institute of Art The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. The art collection is known particularly for ...

, (London);

, the Schleswig-Holstein Museums (Germany), Studio Esseci (Padua, Italy),

, Amsterdam,

Van Abbemuseum The Van Abbemuseum () in Eindhoven is one of the first public museums for contemporary art to be established in Europe. The museum’s collection includes key works and archives by Joseph Beuys, Marc Chagall, René Daniëls, Marlene Dumas, Shee ...

(Eindhoven, Netherlands), Von der Heydt-Museum (Wuppertal, Germany);

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, New York;

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

, Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles;

Centre Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...

, Paris;

Peggy Guggenheim Collection The Peggy Guggenheim Collection is an art museum on the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro ''sestiere'' of Venice, Italy. It is one of the most visited attractions in Venice. The collection is housed in the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, an 18th-century ...

, Venice the

Ulster Museum The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq. ft.) of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasures ...

, Belfast; and the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...

, Minnesota.

Art market

Art Basel Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international art fair staged annually in Basel (Switzerland), Miami Beach (US), Hong Kong and Paris. Art Basel provides a platform for galleries to show and sell their work to buyers, an ...

in 2014, art dealer Dominique Lévy sold a Uecker's suite of eight white paintings for more than 5 million euros. In a

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

Post-War Auction, Uecker's ''Spirale 1/ Spirale 2'', sold for an artist record of £2,629,000 ($3.2 million dollars), on 7 March 2017.

Awards

* 1983

Goslarer Kaiserring Since 1975, the Goslarer Kaiserring award has been given, by the city of Goslar, to a distinguished international artist of modern and contemporary art. The award is for artists whose work has given the contemporary art significant impetus. The pr ...

* 2000

Pour le Mérite The (; , ), also informally known as the ''Blue Max'' () after German WWI flying ace Max Immelmann, is an order of merit established in 1740 by King Frederick II of Prussia. Separated into two classes, each with their own designs, the was ...

* 2001 Knight Commander's Cross of the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

Film

* ''0 x 0 = Kunst: Maler ohne Farbe und Pinsel'',

Hessischer Rundfunk (; "Hesse Broadcasting"), shortened to HR (; stylized as hr), is the German state of Hesse's public broadcasting corporation. Headquartered in Frankfurt, it is a member of the national consortium of German public broadcasting corporations, A ...

(HR), West Germany 1962 * ''Wie ein Bauer auf dem Feld'' – Günther Uecker, West Germany 1989 documentary film * ''Günther Uecker – Poesie der Destruktion'', Germany 2004 TV documentary film * ''Günther Uecker – Huldigung an Hafez'' * ''

Never Look Away Never Look Away may refer to: * ''Never Look Away'' (2018 film), (''Werk ohne Autor''), a German drama film directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck * ''Never Look Away'' (2024 film), a New Zealand documentary film directed by Lucy Lawless * Ne ...

''—Uecker is depicted sympathetically during his early

years in this 2018 German film based loosely on the life of artist

Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced Abstract art, abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, photographs and Glass art, glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important con ...

References

External links

*
ZERO foundation

The Book of Job
artist book, published by Har-El Printers & Publishers; collection of Deutsche Bundestag * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Uecker, Gunther 1930 births 2025 deaths 20th-century German male artists 20th-century German sculptors 21st-century German male artists 21st-century German sculptors Academic staff of Kunstakademie Düsseldorf German contemporary artists German installation artists German male sculptors Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin Op art Painters from Düsseldorf People from Ludwigslust-Parchim People from the Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)