![Marl Gerdes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Marl_Gerdes.JPG)
Ludger Gerdes (10 April 1954,
Lastrup, (Germany) – 17 October 2008 near
Dülmen
Dülmen () is a town in the district of Coesfeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
Geography
Dülmen is situated in the south part of the Münsterland area, between the Lippe river to the south, the Baumberge hills to the north and the Ems ri ...
) was a German painter, sculptor and
multimedia artist
Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to traditio ...
.
Life
After his school-leaving examination (Abitur) at the secondary school Antonianum in
Vechta
Vechta (; Northern Low Saxon: ''Vechte'') is the capital and largest city of the Vechta district in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is home to the University of Vechta.
It is known for the 'Stoppelmarkt' fair, which takes place every summer and has a h ...
, Ludger Gerdes studied at the
Academy of Arts in
Münster
Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...
with
Timm Ulrichs and
Lothar Baumgarten
Lothar Baumgarten (5 October 1944 – 2 December 2018) was a German conceptual artist, based in New York and Berlin. His work includes installation and also film.
Early life and education
Born 1944 in Rheinsberg, Germany, Baumgarten attended ...
from 1975 to 1977, and from 1977 to 1982 at the
Düsseldorf Academy of Arts with
Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, and also photographs and glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary Germa ...
. At the beginning of the 1980s Gerdes stood out in exhibitions and actions with his criticism of the link between modern art, the museum and the temporary exhibition. At this time he exhibited among others along with
Thomas Schütte. He pleaded for works of art as a means for the organization of public space and as a medium of communication. The
English landscape garden
The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...
was a particularly important historical model of this to him. At this time he was regarded as the intellectual head of the artist-group of ''Düsseldorf pattern makers'' (Düsseldorfer Modellbauer). In 1982 he was included in the
documenta 7 in
Kassel. He became known to a larger public in 1987 with his land art project ''A Ship for Münster'' (Ein Schiff für Münster) for the show "
Skulptur.Projekte" in
Münster
Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...
. From 1990 to 1992 he taught at the
Städelschule
The Städelschule (), Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, is a tertiary school of art in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It accepts about 20 students each year from 500 applicants, and has a total of approximately 150 students of visual a ...
, Frankfurt; from 1998 to 2004 he was professor for painting and multimedia at the
art academy
An art school is an educational institution with a primary focus on the visual arts, including fine art – especially illustration, painting, photography, sculpture, and graphic design. Art schools can offer elementary, secondary, post-seco ...
in
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
; since 2005 he was professor for painting at the Muthesius Art Academy in
Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...
. Parallel to his professorship he lived and worked as an artist in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
and
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...
.
![Klaus Bahlsen Brunnen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Klaus_Bahlsen_Brunnen.jpg)
Ludger Gerdes worked in a dual way within the realms of fine arts and philosophy: His large scale-painting pursued questions of the surface and picture reality, his sculptures explored the degree of reality of objects as well as their public function. Gerdes dealt with this ultimately political position within art especially, not only as a visual artist, but also, very effectively, as a theoretical author and performer. Experts regard him as a silent, however important artist of his generation, whose "visual metaphors” in the public space formulated a philosophical and aesthetic reflection of human existence, like for example, the neon sculpture ''ICHS'' (1989) in the garden of the Museum Haus Esters in
Krefeld
Krefeld ( , ; li, Krieëvel ), 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, Germany. It is located northwest of Düsseldorf, i ...
. The last years of his work were dedicated to
public sculpture
Public art is art in any media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and physically access ...
and the aesthetic quarrel with public space, documented by a photo series of 140
town square
A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...
s in Europe. A new group of works consisting of conceptual
diptych
A diptych (; from the Greek δίπτυχον, ''di'' "two" + '' ptychē'' "fold") is any object with two flat plates which form a pair, often attached by hinge. For example, the standard notebook and school exercise book of the ancient world w ...
s combined literary and philosophical texts with photography. His last great public project was the design of Walter Sedlmayr square in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
in 2003. Ludger Gerdes died on October, 17th 2008 in a car accident.
See also
*
List of German painters
This is a list of German painters.
A
> second column was into info box -->
* Hans von Aachen (1552–1615)
* Aatifi (born 1965)
* Karl Abt (1899–1985)
* Tomma Abts (born 1967)
* Andreas Achenbach (1815–1910)
* Oswald Achenbach (1827 ...
English literature
*Ludger Gerdes / Jeffrey Schwartz: ''Art as a Model''. In: La Piz.
ngl.editionNo. 87, May/June 1987, p. 28–35.
*Ludger Gerdes: ''Off the Bandwagon of Progress – But then what?'' In: Cahier 1, ed. by. Mat Verberkt, Witte de With, Rotterdam 1993, p. 122–129.
*''
Dan Graham
Daniel Graham (March 31, 1942 – February 19, 2022) was an American visual artist, writer, and curator in the writer-artist tradition. In addition to his visual works, he published a large array of critical and speculative writing that spanned ...
interviewed by Ludger Gerdes (1991),'' in: Dan Graham: Two-Way Mirror Power. Selected Writings by Dan Graham on his Art, ed. by Alexander Alberro. Cambridge, Mass. 1999, p. 62–83.
*Ludger Gerdes: ''On the Trialectic of Place, Art and Public''. In: Espaces d'espace / The Eighties. Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble, 2008, p. 132–145.
*''Ludger Gerdes. Paralipomena,'' ed. by
Thomas Schütte and Julian Heynen. Cologne 2010.
External links
Walter Sedlmayr-squarein
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
, 2003
Place Granierin
Montpellier, 1999
''A Ship for Münster'', 1987''ICHS'', neon sculpture, Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld, 1989triptych shown as the document, 1982
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerdes, Ludger
1954 births
20th-century German painters
German male painters
21st-century German painters
21st-century German male artists
Artists from Düsseldorf
2008 deaths
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni
People from Cloppenburg
20th-century German sculptors
20th-century German male artists
German male sculptors