Günther Uecker *

(Wendorf 1930–2025 Düsseldorf)
Strukturfeld, 1973, signed, dated and inscribed on the reverse, nails and white paint on canvas laid down on wood, 60 x 60 x 10.5 cm, in Perspex case
This work is registered in the Uecker Archiv under the number GU.73.001 and will be noted for inclusion in the forthcoming Uecker Catalogue Raisonné

Provenance:
Dietmar Schneider, Cologne
Private property, Southern Germany
Sale, Kunsthaus Lempertz, June 1, 2007, lot 443
European Private Collection

Literature:
D. Honisch, Uecker, Klett Cotta, Stuttgart, 1983, p. 233, no. 802 with ill.

In Strukturfeld, Günther Uecker transforms the nail from a common carpenter’s tool into a plastic and vibrant element, capable of giving substance to light.
The surface is not conceived as a static plane, but as a field of forces in which a dense thicket of metal seems to follow an invisible movement, akin to a breath of wind or a marine current bending the matter.

The choice of white paint, applied with uniformity, cancels out any chromatic distraction to focus the attention on the dynamics of shadows. The nails, slanted with an almost ritualistic precision, capture light rays and refract them into a myriad of dark marks that shift continuously depending on the observer's position. In this way, the work ceases to be a fixed object and becomes a changing, dynamic experience.

The act of hammering, despite being a physical and repetitive gesture, loses its original harshness here. Uecker succeeds in finding a subtle balance between the hardness of iron and the delicacy of visual rhythm, creating a structure that appears solid yet, at the same time, strangely fluid. Strukturfeld thus becomes a palimpsest of latent energies, where the methodical repetition of the module generates a dance of light and volume that invites silent and profound contemplation.