Sale: 540 / Evening Sale, June 09. 2023 in Munich Lot 10

 

10
Günther Uecker
Strukturfeld (Struktur I), 1982.
Nails, white paint on canvas and on wood
Estimate:
€ 150,000 / $ 162,000
Sold:
€ 254,000 / $ 274,320

(incl. surcharge)
Strukturfeld (Struktur I). 1982.
Nails, white paint on canvas and on wood.
Honisch 1051. Signed, dated, titled, inscribed and with a direction arrow on the reverse. 40 x 40 x 9.5 cm (15.7 x 15.7 x 3.7 in).

• From the sought-after work group of the nail fields.
• Fine, compact format with a dense and highly dynamic nailwork
• Offered on the international auction market for the first time (source: artprice.com)
.

This work is listed in the Uecker archive under the number GU.82.001 and will be included into the forthcomimg Uecker catalog raisonné.

PROVENANCE: Gabriele Waßermann, Munich.
Private collection Southern Germany (inherited).

"The way I use nails as structural elements, I don't want them to be understood as nails. I use them and their ordered relationship to achieve a vibration that disrupts their geometric order and confuses them."
Günther Uecker, quoted from: Mack Piene Uecker, Kestner-Gesellschaft Hannver, catalog 7, exhibition year 1964/65, p. 166.

"Strukturfeld” (Structure Field)" - a powerful work in a beautiful square format, is one of the early works from Uecker's most famous and most sought-after group of the "Fields". Characterized by a dynamic energy, Günther Uecker’s energetic nail fields exert a timeless fascination on the observer. Uecker's unique artistic creations, the formal restraint and monochrome severity, were increasingly broken up from the 1980s onward, evoke ever new associations. Uecker, who declared the nail his signature means of artistic expression and gave it a spiritual-poetic dimension, has repeatedly examined his very own invention, the “Nagelfeld” (Nail Field) since the 1960s. Initially in small formats, he spread the nails in dense whirling structures across increasingly larger canvasses. Since the 1980s, Uecker has been using larger nails with long necks, which he drives into the image carrier with even more force, creating surface structures that show more expansive movements. In addition, he also left the necks unpainted, thus incorporating their dark surface into the light-dark contrast of his compositions, an effect that is increased and vitalized by the light and shade effect. The use of the nail as an instrument is not only an art-historically significant step, but also entails a liberation of the canvas from its two-dimensionality, giving the artwork a haptic, object-like character and, in form of the changing shadows, integrates light into the process of creation. Over the time, the nail fields appear increasingly dynamic and much more lively than earlier ones. […] These moving fields, which are heavier in terms of material but of airier aesthetics, are among the most virtuoso accomplishments that Uecker found within his creative realm, said the art historian and director of the Neue Nationalgalerie, Dieter Honisch, about Günther Uecker in 1983. (Stuttgart 1983, p. 93) Günther Uecker is a "sculptor" in the truest sense of the word. His work lies between painting and sculpting and breaks the boundaries of traditional panel painting. In the spirit of the "ZERO" movement, Uecker reinvented art with his nail pictures, freeing it from the significance of the painterly style had been defining up to that point. [SM]



10
Günther Uecker
Strukturfeld (Struktur I), 1982.
Nails, white paint on canvas and on wood
Estimate:
€ 150,000 / $ 162,000
Sold:
€ 254,000 / $ 274,320

(incl. surcharge)