.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
‘The nails are not arranged in orthogonal patterns, but instead form spirals that call to mind whorls of hair, whirlpools in the sea, or mysterious circles’
–Kazuhiro Yamamoto
Spanning two metres in width and height, Spirale III (2002) is an outstanding large-scale work from Günther Uecker’s celebrated series of nail paintings. Hammered into the wooden surface in dizzying centrifugal motion, the nails create whirlpools of light and shadow that operate in counterpoint to the spiralling patterns of graphite and latex beneath. Initiated in 1957 and developed through his immersion in the Zero Group between 1961 and 1966, Uecker’s nail paintings sought to give form to the invisible forces of time and motion. The spiral – a constant throughout his oeuvre – was central to this ambition. As Kazuhiro Yamamoto explains, ‘He began each work by hammering a nail into the centre of the panel, after which he placed successive nails around the first one, moving slowly around the square as he progressed working. Thus the pattern of the spiral and the subtle inclination of each nail trace the movements of his body precisely … While at work, the image he had in mind was presumably that of himself planting one tree after another (providing they were of a size he could hold) on a mountain’ (K. Yamamoto, ‘Image and Instrumentality’, in Günther Uecker: Twenty Chapters, exh. cat., Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, 2006, p. 23). By the time of the present work, the spiral had come to assume even greater significance for Uecker, not only in his mechanically-rotating New York Dancers and his Sand Mills, but also in performance pieces that saw him walk in circles around a fixed point. Echoing the centre of a sunflower, the spinning ecstasy of whirling dervishes, galaxies viewed across light-years and the head of the nail itself, this potentially infinite orbital motion lay at the heart of Uecker’s search for new artistic ‘ground zero’.
–Kazuhiro Yamamoto
Spanning two metres in width and height, Spirale III (2002) is an outstanding large-scale work from Günther Uecker’s celebrated series of nail paintings. Hammered into the wooden surface in dizzying centrifugal motion, the nails create whirlpools of light and shadow that operate in counterpoint to the spiralling patterns of graphite and latex beneath. Initiated in 1957 and developed through his immersion in the Zero Group between 1961 and 1966, Uecker’s nail paintings sought to give form to the invisible forces of time and motion. The spiral – a constant throughout his oeuvre – was central to this ambition. As Kazuhiro Yamamoto explains, ‘He began each work by hammering a nail into the centre of the panel, after which he placed successive nails around the first one, moving slowly around the square as he progressed working. Thus the pattern of the spiral and the subtle inclination of each nail trace the movements of his body precisely … While at work, the image he had in mind was presumably that of himself planting one tree after another (providing they were of a size he could hold) on a mountain’ (K. Yamamoto, ‘Image and Instrumentality’, in Günther Uecker: Twenty Chapters, exh. cat., Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, 2006, p. 23). By the time of the present work, the spiral had come to assume even greater significance for Uecker, not only in his mechanically-rotating New York Dancers and his Sand Mills, but also in performance pieces that saw him walk in circles around a fixed point. Echoing the centre of a sunflower, the spinning ecstasy of whirling dervishes, galaxies viewed across light-years and the head of the nail itself, this potentially infinite orbital motion lay at the heart of Uecker’s search for new artistic ‘ground zero’.