Günther Uecker Drucktechniken
22 April 2021
The world-famous zero artist Günther Uecker (* 1930) is known to many for his striking nail pictures. To create them, he nails wood or canvases and creates a fascinating play of light and shadow through the alignment of the nails and their interaction with the incidence of light.
However, Uecker also tried many other artistic techniques, including embossing and etching. However, he did not simply use both techniques – he put his own stamp on them, modified them.
In the mid-1980s he began – in collaboration with his gallerist Dr. Dorothea van der Koelen – to create embossed prints on handmade paper. He combined his signature medium – the nail – with the printing technique, which achieved impressive results. How exactly this technology works – and how Uecker changed it for his art – is explained by Dr. Dorothea van der Koelen in today's video.
At the end of the 80s and beginning of the 90s, Uecker also occupied himself with etching. Based on the technical discipline of copperplate engraving, he used physical tools – such as the hatchet – and chemical aids – such as nitric acid – to produce printing plates for this gravure printing process – as opposed to embossing, a relief printing process. The filigree and at the same time enormous – and in their form very individual – results of this creative process are presented in the video using the example of the Regen (rain) portfolio.
Art connoisseurs and friends of the Düsseldorf-based documenta participant alike shouldn't miss this look behind the scenes. It's worth taking a look!
