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Lot Essay
German Zero artist Uecker uses nails in his artworks as his main artistic material as early as 1957. For him, the nail-covered surface is a sort of antithesis of the painted surface, as is his dominant preference for the colour white. His use of a monochrome colour and his occupancy with a monotonous material in repetitive exercises, enabled him during his career to develop a fascination for the medium light. The nails arranged in all sorts of intervals, rhythms, organic patrons and sequences and their shadows, give the artist the opportunity to explore all sorts of light arrangements. The viewer is, depending on his position and time of day, confronted with a different and unique work every time.
When Uecker met Heinz Macke and Otto Piene in 1960, they formed the Gruppe Zero and began to work closely together until 1966. Several international exhibitions followed; in Ghent and in 1962 the large exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where they installed a large 'Salon de Lumiere'. Other light salons followed in Krefeld and Frankfurt.
In 1961 Uecker created his first disc-shaped rotating work: the so called 'Lichtscheibe'. Through the uses of light and a change of viewpiont these kinetic objects show us a constantly changing reality. In doing this Uecker gave his nailworks a surprising new aesthetic dimension.
"When I use nails as elements of structure, I do not mean for them to be understood as nails. My aim is to establish a structured pattern of relationships with the aid of these elements in order to set vibrations in motion that disturb and irritate their geometric order. The white objects should be seen as states of extreme intensity kept in constant flux by the reflection of light. What is important variability, which is capable of revealing the beauty of movement to us." (The artist in 1961 quoted in: Exh. Cat. Berlin, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Günter Uecker: Twenty Chapters, 2006, p. 34.)
When Uecker met Heinz Macke and Otto Piene in 1960, they formed the Gruppe Zero and began to work closely together until 1966. Several international exhibitions followed; in Ghent and in 1962 the large exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where they installed a large 'Salon de Lumiere'. Other light salons followed in Krefeld and Frankfurt.
In 1961 Uecker created his first disc-shaped rotating work: the so called 'Lichtscheibe'. Through the uses of light and a change of viewpiont these kinetic objects show us a constantly changing reality. In doing this Uecker gave his nailworks a surprising new aesthetic dimension.
"When I use nails as elements of structure, I do not mean for them to be understood as nails. My aim is to establish a structured pattern of relationships with the aid of these elements in order to set vibrations in motion that disturb and irritate their geometric order. The white objects should be seen as states of extreme intensity kept in constant flux by the reflection of light. What is important variability, which is capable of revealing the beauty of movement to us." (The artist in 1961 quoted in: Exh. Cat. Berlin, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Günter Uecker: Twenty Chapters, 2006, p. 34.)