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Lot Essay
Executed in 1962, the nail-filled canvas of Organische Struktur is an exemplary work by artist Günther Uecker. Meticulously placing nails in all manner of angles, Uecker creates a lyrical, tranquil and alluring work that seems totally at odds with the harsh materials and violent way in which it was created. Through carefully positioning the nails to highlight various different relationships between them, Uecker creates a connection between light and shadow that brings a great sense of energy and motion to the surface. He explained, 'when I use nails my aim is to establish a structured pattern of relationships in order to set vibrations in motion that disturb and irritate their geometric order. What is important to me is variability, which is capable of revealing the beauty of movement to us' (G. Uecker quoted in W. Herzogenrath, A. Tolnay (eds.), Günther Uecker: Twenty Chapters, Berlin 2006, p. 34). The nails are arranged in all sorts of intervals, rhythms, organic patterns and sequences and their shadows on the monochrome surface presented Uecker with 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.
From as early as 1957 Uecker used nails as his main artistic material and Organische Struktur comes just two years after he formed the 'Group Zero' artistic movement with Heinz Macke and Otto Piene. After the horrors of the war, they sought to create an art which embodied the ideas of a new beginning from point zero, allowing them to distance themselves from the history of the wartime atrocities perpetuated by their country. Working closely together until 1967, they saw a great deal of international praise, and Organische Struktur was made in the year of their critically acclaimed exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Providing a way for Uecker to reject the traditional medium of paint on canvas, in works like Organische Struktur he creates a totally innovative artistic style that offers a way forward and out of the recent past.
From as early as 1957 Uecker used nails as his main artistic material and Organische Struktur comes just two years after he formed the 'Group Zero' artistic movement with Heinz Macke and Otto Piene. After the horrors of the war, they sought to create an art which embodied the ideas of a new beginning from point zero, allowing them to distance themselves from the history of the wartime atrocities perpetuated by their country. Working closely together until 1967, they saw a great deal of international praise, and Organische Struktur was made in the year of their critically acclaimed exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Providing a way for Uecker to reject the traditional medium of paint on canvas, in works like Organische Struktur he creates a totally innovative artistic style that offers a way forward and out of the recent past.