HA Schult
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HA Schult, born Hans-Jürgen Schult on 24 June 1939 in
Parchim Parchim (; Mecklenburgisch: ''Parchen'') is a town in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is the capital of the Ludwigslust-Parchim district. It was the birthplace of Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, to whom a monument was erected in 1876. Foun ...
,
Mecklenburg Mecklenburg (; nds, label= Low German, Mękel(n)borg ) 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, Schweri ...
is a German
installation Installation may refer to: * Installation (computer programs) * Installation, work of installation art * Installation, military base * Installation, into an office, especially a religious (Installation (Christianity) Installation is a Christian li ...
,
happening A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow during the 1950s to describe a range of art-related events. History Origins Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happen ...
and
conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...
ist known primarily for his object and
performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...
and more specifically his work with garbage. He is one of the first artists to deal with the world's ecological imbalance in his work and has therefore been called an "eco-art pioneer". His best known works include the touring work, ''Trash People'', which exhibited on all continents, and the ''Save The Beach'' hotel, a building made of garbage.


Life

HA Schult studied art 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, Magdalena Jetelová ...
from 1958 to 1961, where he was a student of
Georg Meistermann Georg Meistermann (June 16, 1911 – June 12, 1990) was a German painter and draftsman who was also famous for his stained glass windows in the whole of Europe. From 1930, Meistermann studied art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under Wern ...
,
Joseph Fassbender Joseph Fassbender (Faßbender) (14 April 1903, in Cologne – 5 January 1974, in Cologne) was a German painter and draughtsman. Life and art During the 1920s Fassbender was trained in painting by Richard Seewald at the Kölner Werkschulen. S ...
and
Karl Otto Götz Karl Otto Götz (22 February 1914 – 19 August 2017) often simply called K.O. Götz, was a German artist, filmmaker, draughtsman, printmaker, writer and professor of art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He was one of the oldest living and ac ...
. Among his fellow students were
Gotthard Graubner Gotthard Graubner (13 June 1930 – 24 May 2013) was a German painter, born in Erlbach, in Saxony, Germany. Graubner studied at the Academy of Arts, Berlin, the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts and the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts in Germany, be ...
,
Kuno Gonschior Kuno Gonschior (10 September 1933 in Wanne-Eickel – 16 March 2010 in Bochum) was a German painter. From 1957 to 1961, Gonschior studied painting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In 1959, he was one of the first students of Karl Otto Götz, ...
and, in 1961,
Sigmar Polke Sigmar Polke (13 February 1941 – 10 June 2010) was a German painter and photographer. Polke experimented with a wide range of styles, subject matters and materials. In the 1970s, he concentrated on photography, returning to paint in the 1980s ...
and
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 ...
.Christoph Stiegemann (ed.), ''HA Schult: Die Zeit und Der Müll'', exhibition catalog, Diözesanmuseum Paderborn, 2013, p. 41. At that time, he was mainly inspired by three artists:
Yves Klein Yves Klein (; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein w ...
,
Georges Mathieu Georges Mathieu (27 January 1921 – 10 June 2012) was a French abstract painter, art theorist, and member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He is considered one of the fathers of European lyrical abstraction, a trend of informalism. Bi ...
and
Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a hor ...
."HA Schult: Aktionskünstler, im Gespräch mit Sabine Reeh."
''Alpha-Forum, BR-Online'', 3 January 2003.
From 1962 to 1967 he worked as an
art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...
for a German bank and some industrial companies. From 1967 to 1978 he lived as an artist in
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
and has also performed a range of diversified jobs over time, including a spell as a taxi driver. During the late 1970s Schult lived in
Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
and from 1980 to 1986 chiefly in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, where he became acquainted with Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg. However, Schult had problems establishing a reputation as an artist in the USA, which he attributed to his criticism of America's consumption-driven mentality.Philip Krohn, "HA Schult, Der Müllkünstler"
''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'', 3 August 2009.
He moved back to Germany in 1986. Schult has been situated in
Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
since 1990. His son is the German film director, Kolin Schult. Schult was married to Elke Koska for 25 years, who Schult considers his muse - she was also (and still is) his manager, now in cooperation with
Anna Zlotovskaya Anna Zlotovskaya (russian Анна Злоцо́вская) née Smotritsch (russian Анна Смо́трич) is Russian-Jewish-German violinist and performer. Life Born in (* June 13, 1967 in Moscow) Anna Zlotovskaya made her first appearan ...
, the Russian classical violinist, Schult married in 2010.


Field of art

Schult works in the tradition of Pop Art, being influenced by commercial advertising and a critical view of consumerism, but also creates happenings. Peter Ludwig from the
Museum Ludwig Museum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany, houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from Pop Art, Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It holds many works by Andy Warhol and Roy ...
, Cologne, says: "The entire art movement of the sixties, which was combined under the expression Pop Art, was nothing more than the large-scale attempt to bring art back into a very close relationship with life. ... An action like the one by HA Schult follows here the same line, the attempt to fuse art and life again into one unit, which of course still gives the individual the liberty to accept this as art or not."Diözesanmuseum Paderborn: Die Zeit und der Müll: Trash-Kunst und Konsumkritik.
For instance, in Cologne, a happening staged by Schult involving "19 luxury cars worth a total of over 4 million marks (1.8 million dollars)" caused what was described by one source as the "world's most expensive traffic jam". However, Schult primarily uses trash as an artistic material both for his object art and happenings. The artist calls himself a "Macher", a German word that can mean a "maker" or "worker." According to David Sim, Kim Levin and others, Schult's public extravaganzas have been compared with those of
Christo Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, often large landmarks and ...
and
Jeff Koons Jeffrey Lynn Koons (; born January 21, 1955) is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror-Surface fi ...
. Schult describes himself as an ardent proponent of the "new ecological consciousness" and was referred to as an "eco-art pioneer" by ''
Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' writer Rachel Beckman. Art historian
Jens Christian Jensen Jens Christian Jensen (11 May 1928 – 6 April 2013) was a German art historian and curator. Life Born in Lübeck, after the Abitur passed at the Katharineum, Jensen studied art history, classical archaeology, Germanistics and history of Chris ...
wrote about Schult: "I do not know another German artist who grasps his tasks so comprehensively, no one who has such a sense of feeling for that what matters in our times. In HA Schult the gap has been closed that has been for 200 years between art and the public." According to
Peter Weibel Peter Weibel (; born 5 March 1944 in Odessa, USSR) is an internationally known Austrian post-conceptual artist, curator and new media theoretician. He started out in 1964 as a visual poet but soon jumped from the page to the screen within the sen ...
, "For decades HA Schult has managed to stimulate public awareness using images he has experienced. He stages topics in public places, which are normally edged away from the public. His art work is always directly related to the location where it is shown. He confronts the feudalism, which is manifested in gigantic triumphant buildings with the pauperism of the exploited workers who built them. He pays tribute to the unnamed soldiers and slaves and not to the heroes and sovereigns." According to art historian Gail Levin (Rutgers University), Schult "has made a biting commentary on the indulgent aspects of western society. He calls our attention to our own conspicuous consumption, obsessively returning to the metaphor of garbage, refuse dumps, and debris. He describes his picture boxes as expressing the 'archeology of everyday life'. Indeed, his concerns are with the excesses of western culture, the rhythms of life in a throwaway society." According to Mark Bradley and Kenneth Stow, "Schult's virtuous and political correct mission to convince the world that (...) 'we live in a time of garbage' and his argument that is'social sculpture' operated as a 'mirror of ourselves' meant that his dirty exhibits-however 'out of place' they might seem-were thoroughly sanitized and legitimated, a powerful warning about what that world ''might'' become if it did not moderate its relationship with rubbish."


Works

In 1969, Schult and two of his fellow artists, Ulrich Herzog and Günter Sarrée, were arrested for covering a street in Munich with trash and paper; they referred to the event as a "happening" and dubbed it "Situation Schackstrasse"., pp. 28-39. In the same year and during the early and mid-1970s, Schult produced ''Biokinetic Situations'', exhibited at the
Museum Morsbroich The Morsbroich Museum (german: Museum Morsbroich) or Morsbroich Castle Municipal Museum (''Städtisches Museum Schloss Morsbroich'') is a German museum of modern art situated in Leverkusen, 20 km north of Cologne. History A building referre ...
in
Leverkusen Leverkusen () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the south, Leverkusen borders the city of Cologne, and to the north the state capital, Düsseldorf. With about 161,000 inhabitants, Leverkusen is o ...
and the documenta V in
Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
, installed either on the floors of the museums or within large vitreous display cases, also called "picture boxes". Many of these "situations" shown in over-dimensional glass show cabinets are miniature landscapes consisting of trash, small children’s playthings and bacteria, thereby promoting the archeology of an anticipated future. For instance, in an obvious allusion to
Neuschwanstein Castle Neuschwanstein Castle (german: Schloss Neuschwanstein, , Southern Bavarian: ''Schloss Neischwanstoa'') is a 19th-century historicist palace on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen in southwest Bavaria, Germany. T ...
, Schult created ''Schloss Neu-Wahnstein'' (1983-1987, Museum Ludwig, Cologne), "built on traditional assembly techniques of
Dadaism Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...
. As is typical for collages and assemblies, they break the typical perception of the viewer and create new contexts." As these works were both inspired by the romantic painting of Caspar David Friedrich and the modern age of consumption and waste, German critics such as Siegfried Salzmann and Hilmar Frank pointed out that Schult has been called "the Romantic of the consumption age" or "Caspar David Friedrich of the consumption age." The artist describes himself as "a Romantic of the consumption age" and "a great moralist". ''Der Müll des Franz Beckenbauer'': In 1974, Schult stole the contents of the waste containers of the international footballer, Franz Beckenbauer and presented what he had found in the
Lenbachhaus The Lenbachhaus () is a building housing an art museum in Munich's '' Kunstareal''. The building The Lenbachhaus was built as a Florentine-style villa for the painter Franz von Lenbach between 1887 and 1891 by Gabriel von Seidl and was expa ...
, Munich. ''Venezia vive'': In 1976, the artist filled St. Mark's Square in
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400  ...
with old newspapers in an overnight action that surprised the Venetian people and authorities. He called this happening ''Venezia vive.'' ''Crash'': As his contribution to the 1977 documenta VI, he hired a stunt pilot to crash a Cessna into the garbage dump on
Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull an ...
, New York. This happening, which was sent via satellite to the screens in Kassel, he called ''Crash.'' ''Now!'': In 1983, he created a paper river in downtown New York, using old issues of the ''New York Times'' and called this happening ''Now!'' The ''Flügelauto (winged car)'' is a car as a golden bird. Created in 1991 as part of the performance ''Fetisch Auto'' (''Fetish Car'') in Cologne, this work of art is now displayed on the roof of the
Kölnisches Stadtmuseum The Kölnische Stadtmuseum is the municipal history museum of Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is housed in the building of the historic with the adjacent Prussian . Its collection includes around 350,000 objects from the Middle Ag ...
(Museum of the City of Cologne). Citing the protection of historic monuments, Franz-Josef Antwerpes, the former District President of Cologne, demanded the removal of the car but the competent ministry decided that the artwork could stay in place “temporarily”. In 1994, Schult's happenings ''Marble Time'' and ''Der Krieg'' (''War and Piece'') were performed on the
Palace Square Palace Square ( rus, Дворцо́вая пло́щадь, r=Dvortsovaya Ploshchad, p=dvɐˈrtsovəjə ˈploɕːɪtʲ), connecting Nevsky Prospekt with Palace Bridge leading to Vasilievsky Island, is the central city square of St Petersb ...
in
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, two Russian
T-80 The T-80 is a main battle tank (MBT) that was designed and manufactured in the former Soviet Union and manufactured in Russia. The T-80 is based on the T-64, while incorporating features from the later T-72. The chief designer of the T-80 was So ...
tanks being the central part of this performance. ''Trash People'': Since 1996, Schult has installed one thousand life sized ''Trash People'' made from crushed cans, electronic waste and other rubbish as his critical commentary on constant human consumption. They travelled to major tourist sites such as
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
's
Red Square Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːətʲ) is one of the oldest and largest squares in Moscow, the capital of Russia. Owing to its historical significance and the adjacent historical build ...
(1999), the
Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic grou ...
(2001), and the
Pyramids of Giza The Giza pyramid complex ( ar, مجمع أهرامات الجيزة), also called the Giza necropolis, is the site on the Giza Plateau in Greater Cairo, Egypt that includes the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Men ...
(2002). Schult's installation inspired Chinese artist He Chengyao's first piece of performance art titled ''Opening the Great Wall''. ''Friedensspeicher'': In 1998, he created the ''Peace Storage Building'' in the harbour of
Osnabrück Osnabrück (; wep, Ossenbrügge; archaic ''Osnaburg'') is a city in the German state of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population ...
made of thousands of corrugated boxes carrying the inscription "piece" in different languages. ''Hotel Europe'': In 1999, at Cologne-Bonn airport autobahn, Schult realized ''Hotel Europe'', an empty multistory building covered with 130 oversize portraits of celebrities. It was referred to as the world's largest sculpture until it was blown up on 13 May 2001. ''Love Letters Building'': In 2001, the artist created his ''Love Letters Building'' in Berlin-Mitte by covering the front of the old Berlin Postfuhramt (post office) with hundreds of thousands of love letters. ''Trees for Peace (''Friedensbäume'')'': In 2003, HA Schult decorated the birch trees on the premises of the
Zollverein The (), or German Customs Union, was a coalition of German states formed to manage tariffs and economic policies within their territories. Organized by the 1833 treaties, it formally started on 1 January 1834. However, its foundations had b ...
coal mine in Essen with thousands of painted, written and photographic wishes for peace. ''AutoDom'': In 2006, Schult created the ''AutoDom'' sculpture, using parts from Ford Fiesta and Ford Fusion cars to build a symbolic bridge between Cologne and New York City. ''Save the Beach'': In 2010, Schult created a hotel made of garbage in order to raise awareness of the amount of waste being washed up on European shores. According to the artist, “The philosophy of this hotel is to expose the damage we are causing to the sea and the coastline. We live in the era of trash and we are running the risk of becoming trash ourselves. Do we really want this world?” This work was exhibited in June 2010 in Rome and in January 2011 in Madrid. In March 2013, he created a ''heart out of garbage'' collected by pupils from
Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader and ''Born'', an old German term for t ...
in order to demonstrate the young people what they are throwing away daily. This happening was part of an exhibition of his works at the Diözesanmuseum Paderborn. In 2015, Schult started his ''Action Blue'' world tour with a hybrid electric car from Paris to Beijing, which critically reflects the natural resources air and water on earth. This journey, including stops at various art and cultural institutions, took him from Paris via Luxembourg, Trier, Karlsruhe, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Melsungen, Berlin, Warsaw, Vilnius, Riga, Tallinn, Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Chaykovsky, Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Petropavl, Astana, Karaganda, Balkhash City, Balkhash Lake, Almaty, Dunhuang, Yueya Quan, through the Gobi desert and Yinchuan, Yan'An, Xi'an, Taiyuan, Shijiazhuang to Beijing. The artist also created "Aqua Pictures", using samples collected during that tour. Schult's art is to be found in many public collections, such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC; the Museum of Modern Art, NYC; the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, NYC; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the Tate Gallery, London; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; the Zendai Museum, Shanghai; the Neue Galerie im Joanneum, Graz; the Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe; the Museum Ludwig, Cologne; the German Historical Museum, Berlin; the Museum of Contemporary History of Germany, Bonn; and the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, CA.


Critical voices

In an interview in ''
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...
'' on the occasion of the artist’s 70th birthday, Philip Krohn noted that art critics have described Schult's work as overly commercial and shallow, and said that he has had no new ideas in a long time. Some conservative critics in the 1960s questioned whether Schult's early works qualify as art. What was being criticized were happenings such as the "Situation Schackstraße" (1969), but also happenings and installations such as the ''Biokinetic Situation'' in the Museum Morsbroich (1969). Others have argued that Schult's works are too bizarre for the commercial art market.


HA Schult Museum and ÖkoGlobe-Institut

In 1986, the artist founded the ''HA Schult Museum für Aktionskunst'' in Essen. In 1992, this museum was moved to Cologne. In 2009, Schult was the founder of the ''ÖkoGlobe-Institut'', established at the University Duisburg-Essen. He is also one of the directors of this eco institute."Initiiert wurde der ÖkoGlobe im Jahr 2007 vom Aktionskünstler HA Schult.
Universität Duisburg-Essen: ÖkoGlobe: ÖkoGlobe-Institut


References


Further reading

* Jürgen Schilling, ''Aktionskunst. Identität von Kunst und Leben? Eine Dokumentation'' (Luzern and Frankfurt am Main: Verlag C.J. Bucher, 1978), pp. 168–71. * Juliane Roh, ''Deutsche Kunst der 60er Jahre'' (Munich: Bruckmann, 1976), pp. 256, 271-73, 292.
Martin Schuster, ''Rituale, Kunst und Kunsttherapie''
(Berlin: Medizinisch-wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft, 2008), pp. 122–23.

Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung'' (''WAZ'') is a commercial newspaper from Essen, Germany, published by Funke Mediengruppe. History and profile ''Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung'' was founded by Erich Brost and first published 3 April ...
, 1 June 2009.


External links


HA Schult Online''Save the Beach'' 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schult, Ha 1939 births Living people People from Parchim People from Mecklenburg Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni German contemporary artists