(born Wendorf in 1930) Rotating tactile structure, on the reverse signed, dated Uecker 61, nails on a rotating disc, mounted on an axis, graphite on a hessian-covered wooden panel, 60 x 60 x 18 cm, (PS)

Photo certificate issued by the artist

Provenance:
Private Collection, Germany

A comparable work is held by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice. See: Angelica Zander Rudenstine, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, New York 1985, p. 727, no. 173. Uecker’s artistic work is principally a work of “nail pictures” and “nailed objects”. The primary role of the nail in Uecker’s work is to articulate phenomena of light. “By taking the step from panel image to image object, Uecker’s art departs from conventional appraisal according to content and form, becoming an object, becoming a part of the real world, and conversely also allowing the use of external materials as image carriers, where this serves to articulate virtual oscillations of light and colour within space.” In 1956/ 57 Uecker formulated his artistic destiny: “where two lines touch they create a point and here I hammer in a nail…. I determine the point…. The shadow of the nail creates a new line… The movement of the shadow becomes the perception of time.” And with this deliberate act of volition, Uecker marks in real space the indeterminate points of the cyclical world in which two directions, such as light with shadow, or polar principles, are fixed in the consciousness, taking the form of objects through the process of nailing. (From: H. Weitemeier, Günther Uecker - Wanderer zwischen den Welten, in: Künstler - Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst, Munich 1988, p. 7 & p. 5)
It is a peculiarity of the work that the heads of the nails are sticking in the metal sheet, their tips facing outwards and not, as is normal, with their tips having been hammered into the underground. Moreover, the nails are not fixed, but are movable: the work is in a permanent process of change, the nails standing/falling/moving according to the position of the disc. Sometimes herded together, sometimes pushed apart, in this work the artist formulates his quest to create a new relationship between the tensions of light, space and shadow. The observer plays a key role: the appearance of the work changes according to his position.