(born in Wendorf in 1930)
Symmetrische Struktur – Symmetrical Structure, 1958, signed and dated Uecker 58 on the reverse, nails on wood, coloured white matt, 35 x 33 x 5 cm

The work is registered in the Uecker Archiv under the no. GU.58.025 and will be noted for inclusion in the forthcoming Uecker Catalogue Raisonné.

Provenance:
Galerie Schmela, Dusseldorf
Private Collection North Rhine-Westphalia since the 60s - acquired from the above

“Uecker has used nails as his most important compositional element since the late 1950s, hammering them into the chosen support at oblique angles and different depths in almost ritual repetition. The nail is, as the artist himself describes, "the ideal object for modelling light and shadow - for making time visible... It protrudes from the flat surface as a tactile feeler, similar to a sundial.”
Günther Uecker quoted in: Alexander Tolnay, ed., Günther Uecker Zwanzig Kapitel, Ostfildern-Ruit 2006, p. 72.

The precise craftsmanship of his early works, such as the present composition from 1958, is impressive: parallel-aligned and centred by a vertical line of offset nails, the necks of the nails protrude from the field and evoke a changing play of light depending on the spectator's viewpoint simply through the depth of impact and punctual compression. This is the distinguishing feature of the work: the nails are not hammered in straight in all their formal rigour; instead, the row is slightly varied, creating a sense of movement that lends the work a unique dynamism.