Günther Uecker
„Verletztes Feld“
Artist
Günther Uecker
Additional Description
Nägel, Holzsplitter und Öl auf Leinwand, auf Holz. (19)88. Ca. 43 x 42 x 8 cm. Verso auf der Leinwand signiert, datiert und betitelt sowie mit Richtungspfeil.
Period
(1930 Wendorf – Düsseldorf 2025)
Technique
Sculpture/Object/Multiple
Provenance
Galerie Waßermann + Edition e, München, verso auf der Leinwand mit dem Stempel; Privatsammlung, Süddeutschland, ca. 1990 bei Vorgenannter erworben.
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Description
- Powerful nail painting, compact and of original strength
- Nail pictures are characteristic of Günther Uecker's work, his characteristic contribution to the renewal of art from the 1960s onwards
- Günther Uecker is the most prominent artist of the ZERO group and has received worldwide recognition in collections and museums since "ZERO - Countdown to Tomorrow" at the Guggenheim Museum in New York
As early as the mid-1960s, Günther Uecker replaced homogeneous, evenly nailed rows with expressive, organic structures with broken surfaces. As in the work "Verletztes Feld" (Injured Field), the nails are driven into a wooden background covered with white canvas by free hand without a fixed system and then bent in different directions. This results in injuries and splintering, which occasionally reveal the raw wood. Only in a final step does Uecker apply brushstrokes of black oil paint to the nail field, further increasing the expressive tension of the work. The dynamic creative process remains inscribed in the work and thus becomes the essential medium of expression. The brute force that we associate with this energy-sapping creative act lends the painting an archaic character. The slightly irregular arrangement of the nails makes the act of strength involved in the creation of the work obvious. The nails in Uecker's paintings are often hammered in in a single, cathartic action. Further evidence of the artist's physical presence is provided by the size of the spaces between the nails, which is determined by the size of his fingers. Instead of mysterious artistry and the illusion of space, a comprehensible manual process is used here, which is what makes Uecker's works so appealing. The play of light and shadow also always plays a decisive creative role: The visual impression of the composition changes with the respective incidence of light and emphasizes the sculptural dimension of the works.
This work is registered in the Uecker Archive under the number GU.88.038 and is earmarked for inclusion in the forthcoming Uecker catalog raisonné.
- Nail pictures are characteristic of Günther Uecker's work, his characteristic contribution to the renewal of art from the 1960s onwards
- Günther Uecker is the most prominent artist of the ZERO group and has received worldwide recognition in collections and museums since "ZERO - Countdown to Tomorrow" at the Guggenheim Museum in New York
As early as the mid-1960s, Günther Uecker replaced homogeneous, evenly nailed rows with expressive, organic structures with broken surfaces. As in the work "Verletztes Feld" (Injured Field), the nails are driven into a wooden background covered with white canvas by free hand without a fixed system and then bent in different directions. This results in injuries and splintering, which occasionally reveal the raw wood. Only in a final step does Uecker apply brushstrokes of black oil paint to the nail field, further increasing the expressive tension of the work. The dynamic creative process remains inscribed in the work and thus becomes the essential medium of expression. The brute force that we associate with this energy-sapping creative act lends the painting an archaic character. The slightly irregular arrangement of the nails makes the act of strength involved in the creation of the work obvious. The nails in Uecker's paintings are often hammered in in a single, cathartic action. Further evidence of the artist's physical presence is provided by the size of the spaces between the nails, which is determined by the size of his fingers. Instead of mysterious artistry and the illusion of space, a comprehensible manual process is used here, which is what makes Uecker's works so appealing. The play of light and shadow also always plays a decisive creative role: The visual impression of the composition changes with the respective incidence of light and emphasizes the sculptural dimension of the works.
This work is registered in the Uecker Archive under the number GU.88.038 and is earmarked for inclusion in the forthcoming Uecker catalog raisonné.