Ulrich Rückriem (born 30 September 1938) is a German

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

notable for his monumental stone sculptures. He lives and works in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. His abstract works of art are often assigned to the style of minimalism and process art.

Life and work

Born in

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- ...

, Rückriem apprenticed as a stonecutter in Düren, then worked as a journeyman at the Dombauhütte workshops of Cologne Cathedral. Later, due to his tight association with Gallery Konrad Fischer, Düsseldorf, he came into contact with artists and colleagues like

Carl Andre Carl Andre (born September 16, 1935) is an American minimalist artist recognized for his ordered linear and grid format sculptures and for the suspected murder of contemporary and wife, Ana Mendieta. His sculptures range from large public art ...

, Richard Long,

Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...

, Royden Rabinowitch. From 1963 on, he worked as a free-lance artist. For a few years he shared a studio with Blinky Palermo, before he started his academic career, at

Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg The ''Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg (HFBK Hamburg)'' is the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg. It dates to 1767, when it was called the ''Hamburger Gewerbeschule''; later it became known as ''Landeskunstschule Hamburg''. The main build ...

(starting from 1974), from 1984 on at

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, Magdalena Jetelová ...

, and finally at

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 ...

, In the 1960s and 1070s, Rückriem worked in the quarry of

Dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...

at Anldorf, museum Städel in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and

Neue Nationalgalerie The Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery) at the Kulturforum is a museum for modern art in Berlin, with its main focus on the early 20th century. It is part of the National Gallery of the Berlin State Museums. The museum building and its s ...

Berlin followed. Rückriem was invited to participate at the documenta i. Many of the works of art of Rückriem are accessible to the public as

public art 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 acce ...

, mostly in Germany, but also in Spain, France, England, Ireland and others. A particularly impressive one of these is ''Siglo XX'' (1995), an installation in the open fields close to the locality of Abiego (Spain). It consists of 20 steles of granite from

O Porriño O Porriño (historically known in English as ) is a municipality in Galicia, Spain in the province of Pontevedra. An industrial town, in the Vigo metropolitan area, it is an important economic dependency. One of its main industries is granite p ...

, arranged in a manner analogous to the

eight queens puzzle The eight queens puzzle is the problem of placing eight chess queens on an 8×8 chessboard so that no two queens threaten each other; thus, a solution requires that no two queens share the same row, column, or diagonal. There are 92 solutions. ...

.ULRICH RÜCKRIEM: Siglo XX, 1995
Centro de Arte y Naturaleza Fundación Beulas. Retrieved on 16 August 2013. A permanent installation of about 100 sculptures by Rückriem is at ''Sculpture Halls Ulrich Rückriem'' in Sinsteden, near Cologne. The halls and presentation were devised by the artist himself.

Gallery

File:Heine1.JPG, Heine-Denkmal (1982).

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

File:Rückriem Moltkeplatz Essen.JPG, Dolomit (1983). Essen File:Ulrich Rückriem Granit gespalten 1985.jpg, Granit (Normandie) (1985).

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

File:8 Limestones, Dublin, May 2011 (02).JPG, ''Limestone'' (1988).

Irish Museum of Modern Art The Irish Museum of Modern Art ( ga, Áras Nua-Ealaíne na hÉireann) also known as IMMA, is Ireland's leading national institution for the collection and presentation of modern and contemporary art. Located in Kilmainham, Dublin, the Museum pr ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

File:RueckriemCastellZollverein.jpg, ''Castell'' (1991). Mining waste tip Zollverein at

Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex (German Zeche Zollverein) is a large former industrial site in the city of Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The first coal mine on the premises was founded in 1847, and mining activities took pla ...

, Essen File:Ulrich Rueckriem Finnischer Granit gespalten 1992-93 Goethe-Institut Muenchen-2.jpg, ''Finnischer Granit gespalten'' (1992/93). Goethe-Institut,

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 ...

File:Standing stones, Outwood.jpg, ''7 Steles'' (1999).

Irwell Sculpture Trail The Irwell Sculpture Trail is the largest public art scheme in England, commissioning regional, national and international artists. The Trail includes 28 art pieces and follows a well established footpath stretching from Salford Quays through ...

, England File:Bilbao-Rueckriem-11 5099.JPG, ''Untitled'' (2003). Muelle de Evaristo Ghurruca,

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

References

Bibliography

* ''Ulrich Rückriem: Arbeiten'', Editor: Heinrich Erhardt, Oktagon, 1994. (in German) * Jürgen Hohmeyer: ''Ulrich Rückriem'', Verlag Silke Schreiber, 1988. (in German)

External links

Ulrich Rückriem – artist biography
(Tate Gallery)
Sculpture Halls Ulrich Rückriem
Sinsteden (in German)

– works in public spaces (in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ruckriem, Ulrich 1938 births Living people 20th-century German sculptors 20th-century German male artists German male sculptors 21st-century German sculptors 21st-century German male artists Minimalist artists German contemporary artists

Life and work

Gallery

See also

References

Bibliography

External links