(born in Wendorf in 1930)
Reihung, 1970, titled, signed, dated on the reverse Uecker 70, nails, graphite on linen on wood, 102.5 x 102.5 x 9 cm,

The work is registered in the Uecker Archiv under the number GU70.104 and will be noted for inclusion in the forthcoming Uecker Catalogue Raisonné.

Provenance:
Private Collection Düsseldorf - directly from the artist

Uecker remains connected to the nail and the nail structure through multifaceted associations across his oeuvre. In the present work „Reihung“, the artist applies a geometrically rhythmic grid of lines to the light canvas. The points of intersection are marked by 1089 nails of constant, consistent length. Each nail marks a point between the poles of light and shadow and their far-reaching symbolism, conveying both the energetic reality of light and the kinetic reality of movement.

The exact, rhythmic alternation of nails and open areas structures the entire image surface down to the last detail, whereby, according to the incidence of light and the position of the viewer, new perspectives are constantly opened up, which seemingly cause the picture to vibrate, although in fact everything remains static.

„Light is a medium in which the object becomes resistance“.

In Uecker’s artworks, this means that the materials used function as „light resistors“. They scatter, refract, reflect, centre or fragment it into its spectral components. Moreover, the presence of scattered light is only perceived when it interacts with shadows. The simplest form for this is the relief: it is closest to the traditional genre of canvas painting. Uecker has sought to overcome pictorial two-dimensionality through the use of the nail since the 1950s. Animated, regular, lined up or circular - despite the heaviness of the material, Uecker‘s works appear removed and seemingly weightless through the interplay of light and shadow. Action and contemplation merge into an artistic whole.

The process of creating each work is individual and dependent on desire and concentration, but also physical strength and aggressiveness. This aggressiveness can be directed against the object or (where the nails or stones are directed at us) against the viewer.Thus these objects become expressions of tension and release in equal measure.”

Dieter Honisch, Günther Uecker, Berlin 1984, p. 25