Latest news with #Uecker
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Influential German 'nail artist' Günther Uecker dies aged 95
Günther Uecker, one of the most iconic and influential figures in post-war German art, has died at the age of 95. He was known around the world for his hypnotic nail reliefs - extraordinary textured surfaces created by hammering thousands of carpenter's nails into everyday objects like chairs, pianos, tree trunks, sewing machines, and canvases. His family confirmed he died at the university hospital in his hometown of Düsseldorf in western Germany on Tuesday night. They did not give a cause of death. Related V&A opens its vault: Public invited inside museum's massive new London storehouse Temporality, trees, and togetherness: Inside Marina Tabassum's 2025 Serpentine Pavilion Born in 1930 in the small Baltic village of Wendorf, the son of a farmer, Uecker rose to international fame from humble beginnings. After relocating to Düsseldorf in the 1950s, he studied and later taught at the city's revered art academy. He soon became part of the ZERO group, a radical post-war collective focused on light, movement, and purity in art. In 1956, inspired by Russian revolutionary poet Vladimir Mayakovsky's belief that 'poetry is made with a hammer,' Uecker began hammering nails into canvases, chairs, and spinning disks. His early kinetic pieces created clattering soundscapes and optical effects that blurred the line between painting, sculpture, and performance. Uecker once rode a camel through the hallowed halls of the Düsseldorf Academy in a surreal 1978 art intervention, and in 1968, alongside fellow artist Gerhard Richter, famously "occupied" the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, their protest culminating in a kiss in front of the press. But beneath the playfulness ran a deep moral current. Uecker traveled the world with messages of peace, often creating works in countries under dictatorship or censorship. After the Chernobyl disaster, he painted using ash. He exhibited banners bearing messages of human rights in Beijing, and in a haunting series, painted words of violence -Verletzungswörter - in languages from around the globe. Despite international fame (his works now command over €1 million and appear at top galleries and fairs), Uecker retained an anti-establishment spirit. 'Don't join the establishment,' he told Apollo magazine in a late interview. In recent years, renewed global interest in the ZERO group, including a major retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in 2014, brought his work to new audiences.
Euronews
2 days ago
- Euronews
Turkistan – Crown Jewel of Central Asia's culture and religion
Turkistan – the city that lies in the hot, dry steppe of southwestern Kazakhstan. This ancient place of caravan sarays on the Silk Road, holy to the Muslims, attracts over a million visitors every year. Some of them come as pilgrims, to pay respects to the holy teacher Hoja Ahmad Jasawi, who wrote religious verses and taught disciples in the 12 the century. Some come simply to admire the old architecture and archeological treasures around. All of them flock, as by some kind of gravity, at the magnificent, awe-inspiring mausoleum built by Turco-Mongol conqueror and the founder of the Timurid Empire, Tamberlaine the Great. With its richly decorated blue-tile façade and imposing domes, the mausoleum is both the place of prayer and a tourist attraction. It is included in the UNESCO's list of cultural heritage. But the city is not just a place of history and religion. It offers many modern day attractions for tourists and one can enjoy ethno streets and engage in old crafts and martial arts, fly over Kazakhstan in the seat of the flying theater, visit museums or a great park. A modern park recreating oasis resting place for caravans offers shopping and an evening show on water. With Kazakhstan government making an effort to make the city more accessible by rail or air travel, one should definitely think about putting this place on the travel agenda. Günther Uecker, one of the most iconic and influential figures in post-war German art, has died at the age of 95. He was known around the world for his hypnotic nail reliefs - extraordinary textured surfaces created by hammering thousands of carpenter's nails into everyday objects like chairs, pianos, tree trunks, sewing machines, and canvases. His family confirmed he died at the university hospital in his hometown of Düsseldorf in western Germany on Tuesday night. They did not give a cause of death. Born in 1930 in the small Baltic village of Wendorf, the son of a farmer, Uecker rose to international fame from humble beginnings. After relocating to Düsseldorf in the 1950s, he studied and later taught at the city's revered art academy. He soon became part of the ZERO group, a radical post-war collective focused on light, movement, and purity in art. In 1956, inspired by Russian revolutionary poet Vladimir Mayakovsky's belief that 'poetry is made with a hammer,' Uecker began hammering nails into canvases, chairs, and spinning disks. His early kinetic pieces created clattering soundscapes and optical effects that blurred the line between painting, sculpture, and performance. Uecker once rode a camel through the hallowed halls of the Düsseldorf Academy in a surreal 1978 art intervention, and in 1968, alongside fellow artist Gerhard Richter, famously "occupied" the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, their protest culminating in a kiss in front of the press. But beneath the playfulness ran a deep moral current. Uecker traveled the world with messages of peace, often creating works in countries under dictatorship or censorship. After the Chernobyl disaster, he painted using ash. He exhibited banners bearing messages of human rights in Beijing, and in a haunting series, painted words of violence -Verletzungswörter - in languages from around the globe. Despite international fame (his works now command over €1 million and appear at top galleries and fairs), Uecker retained an anti-establishment spirit. 'Don't join the establishment,' he told Apollo magazine in a late interview. In recent years, renewed global interest in the ZERO group, including a major retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in 2014, brought his work to new audiences.
Euronews
2 days ago
- General
- Euronews
Influential German 'nail artist' Günther Uecker dies aged 95
Günther Uecker, one of the most iconic and influential figures in post-war German art, has died at the age of 95. He was known around the world for his hypnotic nail reliefs - extraordinary textured surfaces created by hammering thousands of carpenter's nails into everyday objects like chairs, pianos, tree trunks, sewing machines, and canvases. His family confirmed he died at the university hospital in his hometown of Düsseldorf in western Germany on Tuesday night. They did not give a cause of death. Born in 1930 in the small Baltic village of Wendorf, the son of a farmer, Uecker rose to international fame from humble beginnings. After relocating to Düsseldorf in the 1950s, he studied and later taught at the city's revered art academy. He soon became part of the ZERO group, a radical post-war collective focused on light, movement, and purity in art. In 1956, inspired by Russian revolutionary poet Vladimir Mayakovsky's belief that 'poetry is made with a hammer,' Uecker began hammering nails into canvases, chairs, and spinning disks. His early kinetic pieces created clattering soundscapes and optical effects that blurred the line between painting, sculpture, and performance. Uecker once rode a camel through the hallowed halls of the Düsseldorf Academy in a surreal 1978 art intervention, and in 1968, alongside fellow artist Gerhard Richter, famously "occupied" the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, their protest culminating in a kiss in front of the press. But beneath the playfulness ran a deep moral current. Uecker traveled the world with messages of peace, often creating works in countries under dictatorship or censorship. After the Chernobyl disaster, he painted using ash. He exhibited banners bearing messages of human rights in Beijing, and in a haunting series, painted words of violence -Verletzungswörter - in languages from around the globe. Despite international fame (his works now command over €1 million and appear at top galleries and fairs), Uecker retained an anti-establishment spirit. 'Don't join the establishment,' he told Apollo magazine in a late interview. In recent years, renewed global interest in the ZERO group, including a major retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in 2014, brought his work to new audiences. Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Spain, where we lay our scene... A bastardised Shakespeare opening that suits the ongoing 'rivalry' between two family-owned taverns, who both claim to be the world's oldest establishments. There's Madrid's Sobrino de Botín, which holds the coveted Guinness World Record as the world's oldest restaurant. Founded in 1725 and located a stone's throw from the famed Plaza Mayor, it is famed for its wood-fire oven and has attracted patrons like Truman Capote, F. Scott Fitzgerald and was immortalised by Ernest Hemingway in his book 'The Sun Also Rises' - in which the author described Botín as 'one of the best restaurants in the world." It was awarded the Guinness accolade in 1987 and celebrated its 300 years of continuous service earlier this year. Then there's Casa Pedro, located on the outskirts of Madrid. The rustic tavern has boldly claimed that they have a shot at the title. The establishment has hosted Spanish King Juan Carlos I and current Spanish monarch King Felipe VI, and the owners assert their establishment endured the War of Spanish Succession at the start of the 18th century - therefore making Casa Pedro older than Botín. 'It's really frustrating when you say, 'Yes, we've been around since 1702,' but... you can't prove it,' says manager and eighth-generation proprietor Irene Guiñales. 'If you look at the restaurant's logo, it says 'Casa Pedro, since 1702,' so we said, 'Damn it, let's try to prove it.'' Guiñales' family has hired a historian and has so far turned up documents dating the restaurant's operations to at least 1750. She continues to hunt for records proving that Casa Pedro dates back to 1702. The question remains: How can either restaurant claim the title? Guinness provides its specific guidelines only to applicants, according to spokesperson Kylie Galloway, who notes that it entails 'substantial evidence and documentation of the restaurant's operation over the years." Antonio González, a third-generation proprietor of Botín, states that Guinness required Botín show that it has continuously operated in the same location with the same name. The only time the restaurant closed was during the pandemic – much like Casa Pedro. That criteria would mean that restaurants that are even older, like Paris' Le Procope, which says it was founded in 1686, aren't eligible for the Guinness designation. To make matters dicier, an Italian trattoria located in Rome's historic center, may pip both Sobrino de Botín and Casa Pedro to the post and steal the cake. Nestled on Vicolo della Campana, La Campana claims 'a taste of authentic Roman cuisine with a side of history' and more than 500 years of operation, citing documents on its menu and a self-published history. Its owners have said they have compiled the requisite paperwork and plan to submit it to Guinness. The battle of tasty households continues... Let's hope that chef blood won't make chef hands unclean.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
World-famous German "nail artist" Günther Uecker dies at 95
BERLIN (AP) — German artist Günther Uecker, one of the country's most important post-war artists who was world-famous for his large-format nail reliefs, has died. He was 95. German news agency dpa reported that his family confirmed he died at the university hospital in his hometown of Düsseldorf in western Germany Tuesday night. They did not give a cause of death. For decades, Uecker, who was often dubbed 'the nail artist,' created art by hammering carpenter's nails into chairs, pianos, sewing machines and canvases. His works can be found in museums and collections across the globe. In his art work, seemingly endless numbers of nails, which would by themselves perhaps be perceived as potentially aggressive and hurtful, turned into harmonic, almost organic creations. His reliefs with the tightly hewn nails are reminiscent of waving grasses or fields of algae in a marine landscape. Uecker himself described his nail art as diary-like landscapes of the soul, which he called an 'expression of the poetic power of man,' dpa reported. Hendrik Wüst, the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia which includes state capital Düsseldorf, called Uecker 'one of the most important and influential artists in German post-war history' and said that with his life's work, he influenced generations of young artists and 'contributed to an open and dynamic society." Born on March 13, 1930, in the village of Wendorf on the Baltic Sea, Uecker moved to Düsseldorf in the mid-1950s, where he studied and later also taught at the city's prestigious art academy. In one of his most spectacular appearances or art happenings, he rode on the back of a camel through the hallways of the venerable academy in 1978. Together with fellow artist Gerhard Richter, he 'occupied' the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden museum in 1968, with both kissing in front of the cameras. The son of a farmer, he traveled the world with a humanitarian message of peace and exhibited in countless countries, including dictatorships and totalitarian states. He painted ash pictures after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine in 1986, and exhibited human rights messages painted on fabric in Beijing. He also painted 'Verletzungswörter,' or words of violence, killing and torment in many languages and foreign scripts on large canvases. In 2023, Uecker erected a stone memorial in Weimar in memory of the victims of the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald. 'The theme of my artistic work is the vulnerability of man by man,' he said.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
German artist who 'painted with nails', Guenther Uecker, dead at 95
German sculptor and installation artist Guenther Uecker, best known for his mesmerising artworks using thousands of nails, has died at age 95. His works, created from the 1950s saw him hammer nails into furniture, TV sets, canvases and a tree trunk, creating undulating patterns, the illusion of movement and intricate shadow plays. While he became famous for using a hammer instead of a brush to "paint with nails", Uecker, considered one of Germany's most influential artists, later also used other materials, from sand to stones and ash. Uecker was born on March 13, 1930, in Wendorf in what is now the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. He grew up on Wustrow, a peninsula north of the Baltic Sea port of Wismar, experiencing the horrors of World War II. A few days before the German surrender, the ship "Cap Arcona" sank near his hometown, with 4,500 concentration camp prisoners on board. Uecker helped bury the dead who washed up on shore, a traumatic experience he addressed decades later in his work "New Wustrow Cloths". Fearing the advance of the Russian Red Army, a young Uecker nailed shut the door of his family home from the inside to protect his mother and sisters. Uecker remembered that "panicked, instinctive act" in a 2015 TV documentary with public broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk. "That had a profound impact on me and was perhaps a key experience for my later artistic work." - 'Intrusiveness and aggression' - Even as a child, Uecker was constantly drawing. This displeased his father, a farmer, who thought his son was "a failure and not quite normal", Uecker recalled in a 2010 interview with the Rheinische Post daily. As a young man in East Germany, Uecker in 1949 began an apprenticeship as a painter and advertising designer, then studied fine art. But Uecker, who wanted to study under his artistic idol Otto Pankok, fled East Germany in 1953 and transferred to the University of Dusseldorf. Uecker, who created his first nail paintings in the late 1950s, later said that the nail attracted him for its "intrusiveness, coupled with a strong potential for aggression", something he said he also carried within himself. In 1961, he joined the art group Zero of Otto Piene and Heinz Mack, who sought to counter the devastation of World War II with a spirit of optimism and lightness. Zero aimed to return art to its absolute basics, they wrote in their manifesto: "Zero is the beginning." Uecker's work often addressed contemporary issues. His ash paintings, for example, were a response to the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident. After xenophobic riots targeted migrants in a suburb of Rostock in 1992, he created a series called "The Tortured Man" which was exhibited in 57 countries. Uecker's works are exhibited in museums and galleries, but he also designed cathedral church windows and the prayer room of Berlin's Reichstag building housing the lower house of parliament. Asked once whether he was bothered by being known simply as the nail artist, he said he wasn't. "Something like that is necessary for identification ... People need a symbol, an emblem." wik/fz/sea/giv
