Günther Uecker

Galerie Reckermann, Cologne

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1990

Moscow, Central House of Artists, Günther Uecker in Moskau, 1988

Lodz, Muzeum Sztuki, Günther Uecker: Nowe Dziela, 1989

Vienna, Kunstforum Wien, Sammlung Hubert Looser, 2012, p. 171, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate although the overall tonality is warmer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There are a few scuffs and scrapes which are original to the works execution and inherent to the artist's working process. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultra-violet light.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A mesmeric field of cascading nails that protrude into empty space and evince a captivating synthesis between object and environment, Weisser Schrei is a seminal paradigm of Günther Uecker’s salient nail reliefs. Monumental in scale it is one of the largest works by the artist to ever appear for public sale and is being sold to benefit the philanthropic interests of the Fondation Hubert Looser, Zurich, a distinguished private collection of Modern and Contemporary art. A leading figure in the theoretical and liberal pursuit of an artistic tabula rasa, Günther Uecker was one of the key members of the ZERO Group. In the wake of World War II, many European artists were striving for an artistic expression that would satisfy their need for a new beginning, a base ‘zero’, free from the gestural brushwork and pictorial sentimentality of the Tachisme and Art Informel movements that proliferated during the 1950s. This was nowhere achieved as pertinently as in the ZERO Group. As succinctly summarised by Otto Piene: “Zero is the incommensurable zone in which the old state turns into the new” (Otto Piene, ‘Die Entstehung der Gruppe ‘Zero,’’ The Times Literary Supplement, 3 September 1964). Herein, the group’s name aptly referenced the countdown for a rocket launch and advocated a radical new beginning for modern art. Recently ZERO: Countdown to Tomorrow, the first major exhibition of ZERO works in the United States, on display at the Guggenheim New York from October 2014 to January 2015, has catapulted the ZERO artists to international fame. Günther Uecker’s works have since been recognised with a major exhibition at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, Dusseldorf, in which his breath-taking nail reliefs presented a visual biography of the artist’s idiosyncratic oeuvre.

In its sweeping purity of form and colour Weisser Schrei or “white scream” endures as a model of subtle elegance and dynamism. A duality of rhythmic structure and loose chaos creates an overall effect that is as vigorous as it is enthralling. With an almost ritualistic repetition Uecker hammered in nails at slanting angles and various depths.  As if moving towards an invisible magnetic field they gravitate towards the centre of the composition. An irregular, organic form buds, rises, and metamorphoses out of the surface and conquers the space around it, accessing a new dimension beyond traditional representation. As described by Uecker, the nail is “the ideal object with which to model light and shadow – to make time visible… It protrudes as a tactile feeler from the flat surface, much like a sundial” (Günther Uecker quoted in: Alexander Tolnay, Ed., Günther Uecker Twenty Chapters, Ostfildern-Ruit 2006, p. 72). In Weisser Schrei the jutting landscape of nails is transformed by a dramatic chiaroscuro effect, which varies depending on view point and position of light and delivers an entirely unique visual experience.

A white washed relief suffused by a vivid interplay of light and dark, Weisser Schrei reflects the primary concerns of the ZERO group. Frequently employed by Uecker and his contemporaries for its properties as a ‘non-colour’, white epitomised the nihilistic reduction of the artwork. This harked back to Kazimir Malevich’s White on White from 1918. Devoid of all expressive connotations, this work advocated a new artistic expression, where materialism would pave the way to spiritual freedom. Stripping painting to its bare minimum in this radical reduction, Malevich pursued art as a metaphysical portal to the beyond. Similarly, Uecker posits white as the ultimate bearer of spiritual liberation: “I chose a white zone as an expression of extreme coloration, as the epitome of light, as a triumph over darkness. A white world, I believe, is a humane world in which people experience a colourful existence, in which they can be truly alive. These white structures can be a language of the mind in which we begin to meditate. The state of whiteness may be understood as prayer, and its articulation can be a spiritual experience” (Günther Uecker quoted in: ibid, p. 44).

Uecker joined the ZERO Group, founded in 1957 by Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, in 1961. Whilst Uecker, Mack and Piene formed the core of the group, other artists who associated themselves with the movement or exhibited their works in ZERO exhibitions included Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Pol Bury and Daniel Spoerri. Seeking to discover an entirely new creative language unencumbered by extraneous concerns and traditional ideas of representation, ZERO artists employed light and motion as a means to radicalised artistic expression. Pure colour and light was seen as the essence of cosmic power and became synonymous with the spiritual liberation of the individual. As outlined by Uecker: “My objects are spatial realities, zones of light. I use mechanical means in order to overcome the subjective gesture, to objectify it, and to create the situation of freedom” (Günther Uecker quoted in: ibid, p. 54).

A lyrical coalition of the primary principles of Uecker’s idiosyncratic oeuvre, Weisser Schrei affords a revolutionary departure from the conventional concepts of pictorial space and formal purity. It is a poetic embodiment of the meditative powers of art, whose spiritual enterprise finds a subtly differing ontological response in every viewer.