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Günther Uecker

Painter and College professor (male)

Born
1930 in Wendorf

4 Works by Günther Uecker

Video

Kunst nach 1945: Günther Uecker
Im jüngsten Film unserer Reihe zur Gegenwartskunst im Städel begleiten wir den ZERO-Künstler Günther Uecker bei der Installation seiner kinetische Bodenskulptur „Sandmühle" (1970). Die Arbeit wurde auf Initiative von Mitgliedern des Kuratoriums und des Vorstandes der Freunde der Schirn und des Städelkomitees 21. Jahrhundert erworben. Bevor der Ankauf des Schirn-Freundeskreises ab Februar 2012 im Städel-Erweiterungsbau zur Aufführung gebracht wird, drehte die Sandmühle Anfang September ihre Runden in der Schirn Kunsthalle. Dort wurde sie vom mittlerweile über 80-jährigen Uecker eigenhändig aufgebaut. http://www.staedelmuseum.de/de#youtube

Biography

Günther Uecker was born in 1930 in Wendorf, in Pomerania, Germany. He grew up on the Wustrow Peninsula, where he experienced the end of the Second World War. In 1949 Uecker began studying painting in Wismar. He went from there to Berlin-Weißensee, and in 1955 to Düsseldorf, where he studied under Otto Pankok at the art academy. In the late 1950s he began making his first typical nail sculptures. In 1961 Uecker joined the artists’ group ZERO around Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, and experimented with kinetic light art. Together, in 1962 the artists installed their Salon de lumière in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, in the Palais des Beaux Arts in Paris, and subsequently in Frankfurt and Krefeld. In 1970 Uecker was one of the country’s representatives in the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. In the early 1970s he travelled in South America, Africa and Asia, and then from 1974 to 1995 taught as a professor at Düsseldorf’s art academy. In 1998 Uecker was commissioned to design the prayer room in the Reichstag building in Berlin. He has been honoured with the Goslar Kaiserring (1983), the Federal Republic’s Order of Merit (1985) and most recently the North Rhine-Westphalian state prize (2015). Uecker lives and works in Düsseldorf.

Persons connected to Günther Uecker

Groups and institutions Günther Uecker belongs to