Günther Uecker

Biography
Günther Uecker
Guenther Uecker (1930), who grew up on the Wustrow peninsula, where his father worked as an engineer in the aerospace industry of a pilot airfield, experienced the end of the Second World War here.
He studied from 1949 to 1953 in Wismar and at the art academy in Berlin-Weißensee.
On the occasion of the World Youth Festival in East Berlin in 1951, he had the opportunity to visit West Berlin for the first time and came into contact with abstract art.

Nail reliefs
Because he wanted to study with his idol Otto Pankok, he went to West Germany in 1955.
From 1955 to 1957 he continued his studies at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf with Otto Pankok.
In 1956/1957 his typical nail sculptures were made: three-dimensional, white painted reliefs made of nails, which receive their own dynamics through the alignment of the nails and the interaction of light and shadow.
From 1962 Günther Uecker made everyday objects such as furniture with nails.

Zero
In 1961 Günther Uecker became a member of the ZERO group of artists founded by Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, after which he also turned to the kinetic art of light.
Together with Gerhard Richter he organised the demonstration
"Museums can become habitable places".
The implementation of the Terrororchester in the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, a noisy installation of 20 machines, hoovers, a washing drum and a hammer and sickle, caused sensation nationwide.

Venice Biennale
Together with Thomas Lenk, Heinz Mack and Georg Karl Pfahler, Günther Uecker was the German representative at the Venice Biennale in 1970. From 1971 to 1974 he worked in South America, Africa and Asia and from 1984 to 1985 in Japan, Siberia, China, Iceland and Mongolia.
Since the 1980s he has taken a stand on political issues: so he reacted to the Chernobyl disaster with the cycle "ash images".
Other political references can be found in his work on Iraq, environmental problems and more.

Professor of Art Academy

From 1974 to 1995 Günther Uecker taught as a professor at the art academy in Düsseldorf.
Among his master students were Halina Jaworski, Klaus Schmitt and Matthias Hintz.
In 1999 he designed the prayer room in the new Reichstag building in Berlin.
In 2004 he conceived the open-air stage for a performance of Wilhelm Tell on - it is said - a historic site on the Rütliwiese.

Zero Foundation
In December 2008 Günther Uecker was co-founder of the Zero Foundation.
Other founders were ZERO artists Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, as well as the museum art palast foundation.
The foundation is located in the Media Harbour in Düsseldorf.
It has set itself the goal of preserving, presenting, researching and promoting the ZERO movement,

Uecker lives and works today in Düsseldorf-Oberkassel and St. Gallen. A studio is also located in the Berlin garden city Atlantic [4] by architect Rudolf Fränkel.

Günther Uecker is the brother of the artist Rotraut and brother-in-law of the late artist Yves Klein. With his wife Christine Uecker he has a son, Jacob, who works for Christie's auction house.