German artist Günther Uecker (b. 1930) – one of the most prominent members of the ZERO Group – here stresses the importance of not adhering to the conventions of society, but to follow one’s own voice: “Don’t rush to the guillotine, assert yourself first.”
A rationalist education is important in order to establish a solid knowledge of your materials and such, but what truly counts is the pursuit of self-experimentation: “This lab-like experimental work is a prerequisite for creating your own language so as to give your individuality artistic expression.” One must follow a
higher inner aspiration and let oneself be driven by the desire for something unknown.
Günther Uecker (b. 1930) is a German sculptor, painter, and installation artist. Uecker was a prominent member of the group ZERO – a movement, forged in the late 1950s that fostered artistic discovery by promoting a new environment unconstrained by past artistic traditions. Since 1956, Uecker increasingly used nails in his artistic practice, hammering nails into pieces of furniture, musical instruments and household objects, and later combining nails with light and creating his series of light nails and kinetic nails. His nail-relief works exceed the limits of the two-dimensional plane and create a new realm for the vision to explore the calculated patterns of light and shadow. Uecker’s work can be found in the collections of major institutions worldwide, among them the ZERO Foundation and Museum Kunst Palast in Düsseldorf, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Museum of Modern Art in New York, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Walker Art Center in Minnesota.
Günther Uecker was interviewed by Christian Lund at Edition Copenhagen in December 2014.
Camera: Klaus Elmer
Produced by: Christian Lund
Edited by: Kasper Bech Dyg
Copyright: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2017
Supported by Nordea-fonden
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