(Grünstadt 1927–2010 Buchholz in der Nordheide)
“S3 D3, 1962”, numbered and inscribed Wilding on a label on the reverse, synthetic cord stretched between nails on whited frame over felt pen on paper strips, collaged, on masonite, 101 x 66 cm, in studio frame with whiting, (PS)

Provenance:
Private Collection, Rhineland

Ludwig Wilding’s works are categorised as kinetic art; he himself distinguishes himself as a consistent proponent of Op Art in Germany. Even during his lifetime, Wilding exhibited not only in Germany but also in New York, Paris and Tokyo. Concentrating on perception, in the 1960s he became a pioneer of a new aesthetic in reproduction. He devoted himself to the phenomena of movement using the medium of the image, with the line becoming the central form in his work. Ludwig Wilding thinks in lines as bodies, tapered and extended. In many of his works, the background perspective is distorted and the focal points shifted away from the centre; he worked by superimposing shapes, layering and contrasts, using physiological moments such as the Moiré pattern.
The artist plumbed the confusion of visual perception to produce apparent motion, virtuality and anamorphosis, through the layering of two-dimensional linear structures. This is also shown in the present work, with the black lines at the rear, set at a distance behind the taut, white synthetic cords in front. His works challenge the usual perceptions of the viewer and the interaction of eye and brain. Wilding constructs situations that go beyond the usual experience of art, giving the viewer the chance to consciously undergo a personal experience. Wilding’s art removes the different roles played by the artist and viewer in favour of more active participation. He demands that the viewer moves in front of his works, turning to right and left, and examining the work close up or from a distance of four meters away; for only through the interaction of the viewer, their position in space or their movement, is the predominantly flat object transformed into a three-dimensional visual experience.

Visual art takes place primarily through the channel of the eyes”
(Ludwig Wilding 1975)

additional picture:
from exhibition catalogue: Ludwig Wilding 1979, Visuelle Autobiographie, Galerie Schoeller, Düsseldorf 1979

article kinetic art - more than a movement