Günther Uecker

Acquired directly from the artist by Alexander Orlow for the Peter Stuyvesant Collection in 1970

The Hague, Pulchri Studio, Peter Stuyvesant Collectie, 1972
Zevenaar, Turmac, 30 Jaar Peter Stuyvesant Collectie: Hommage à Spinoza, 1990
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Art Works: International Modern Art in the Industrial Working Environment, an Experiment over more than Thirty Years: Peter Stuyvesant Foundation, 1991-1992, p. 169, illustrated in colour
Barcelona, Fondación Miró; Zaragoza, Palacio de la Lonja; Valencia, Museo de la Ciudad, El Arte Funciona, 1992
Zug, Huberte Goote Gallery, The Peter Stuyvesant Collection, 1992-1993
Sevilla, World EXPO '92, Art in the Factory, 1992, no. 73, illustrated in colour

Colours: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the overall tonality is warmer in the original. The catalogue illustration fails to convey the depth of the work as the shadows of the screws are missing form the catalogue illustration. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is a superficial layer of dust adhering to the surface. There is some wear with associated minute specks of paint losses to the extreme edges of the composition as well as to the extreme corner tips. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
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Executed the year that Gunther Uecker was selected to represent Germany at the 35^th Venice Biennale and acquired by the Peter Stuyvesant collection shortly after, Grosser Schnee manifests a conceptual and methodological turning point in Uecker's career during which he moved away from the hitherto mathematical and formulaic placement of his nails in favour of a more organic and direct approach. Placing the canvas on the studio floor and working on his knees, Uecker began to hammer the nails spontaneously at approximately the width of his finger, moving rapidly outwards from the centre without premeditated design or preliminary sketch. This distinct change, intuitive in both technique and approach, saw artist and canvas converge in a physical, rhythmical fit of artistic production that added newfound expressive power to his hypnotic optical effect. Dieter Honisch described Uecker as now working "at lightening speed in a single, uninterrupted action, the results of which he did not see as a whole until the action was completed or brought to an end by sheer exhaustion." (Dieter Honisch in: Exhibition Catalogue, Berlin, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Günther Uecker: Twenty Chapters, 2006, p. 60).

Stigmatizing the canvas with unprecedented directness and unretractable force, Uecker in the present work orchestrates a climactic symphony of light, shadow and movement. Its extraordinary sensory effect, generated through the rhythmic repetition of its curving field of protruding nails, broadcasts an ethereal and wholly transfixing aura that is perfectly described by the work's title Grosser Schnee, or "A lot of Snow". Initially seduced by a serene white monochrome of gently swirling movements, the undulating surface enacts a mesmerizing interplay of light and shadow that transports the viewer as if into a snowy blizzard or icicle field. With the slightest change in light or perspective, the viewer is confronted with a swirling landscape of projecting nails launching towards them; one that not only changes in relation to light levels in the hanging space but also according to the position of the viewer, creating each time a unique and individual relationship to the work.

Antithetical to traditional painting techniques, like Lucio Fontana who transcended the medium's two dimensional physicality by cutting through it, Uecker's revolutionary approach to embellishing the flat canvas created a new and indefinable bridge between painting and sculpture - one in which light, space and energy are materialized in the viewer's own space. Uecker had started exploring the creative possibilities of nails whilst a student at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where in 1957, his first explorations with this medium caught the eye of Otto Piene and Heinz Mack - two instrumental figures in the newly formed Zero group in which Uecker was to play a leading role until its dissipation in 1966.

Buzzing with the confidence of Uecker's newly spontaneous artistic demarche, Grosser Schnee is a highly expressive example of his radical approach to painting. The violence inherent in both its medium and process is beautifully tempered by the rhythmical ebb and flow induced by the positioning and relationship of the nails to each other, and by the silent tranquility of the palette. With Grosser Schnee we are afforded the salient themes of Uecker's best output as well as artwork of breathtaking quality, expressive power and visual effect.