(Uerdingen 1912–1990 Krefeld)
Concave Mirror Object (dark silver), signed, dated luther 88 and stamps in red “Energetische Plastik” and “Sehen ist schön”, on the reverse, 225 square mirrors on curved plexiglass plate on wood, 150 x 150 cm, plexiglass frame

Provenance:
Private Collection, North Rhine-Westphalia - directly from the artist

“When I didn’t want pictures any more, I didn’t want beauty in the form of sublime, stunning, moving or distressing beauty either. Perhaps I just wanted to amaze, since, as a result of my choice of light and matter as a subject, reality becomes unrecognisable.”
Adolf Luther, Das Licht kann kein Bild sein, Cologne 1984, p. 139
For Adolf Luther reality is not the observable world of phenomena that stands in the tradition of a mimetic art; rather, his reality is to be found under, or rather beyond, the immediately observable – it is light, it is that radiating energy that enables, and reveals, life on earth across the dark universe. The instrumental reality of Luther’s Concave Mirror Objects manifests itself in the multiplication of existing reality, whereby its reflection generates a luminous phenomenology of the object’s materiality expanding into real space. (Cf. Magdalena Broska, Adolf Luther, Eine außergewöhnliche Künstlerkarriere, Goch 2012, p. 9)
His understanding of light is physical, transoptical, since his reality does not serve to achieve visibility; rather, the conditions of visibility are reflected for him and in his art. With his Concave Mirror Objects, Adolf Luther is able to find a direct solution to the problem he has chosen to address: how to make the invisible nature of light immediately visible. With his concave mirrors, Adolf Luther finds a medium that does not absorb light, but breaks it and reflects it with objects that are as immaterial as possible, and is capable of manifesting its luminosity with optimal limpidity.
The concave mirror object offered here is a perfect example of this refraction of light. The square format creates a current through the concave shape of the mirror surfaces into which the recipient is drawn. Standing in front of this large-format work, viewers automatically step closer and closer until they seem to lose themselves completely in the work. They are enveloped by the reflecting light and enter into the safe custody of the artwork.