"Where language fails, the picture begins." This statement by Uecker stands for his decades of artistic creation. Recurring motifs in his nail works, works in materials such as stone, sand, earth and ashes, testify to the tremendous power of his minimalist vocabulary as a universally understood language. Günther Uecker inspires. The art of Günther Uecker is too diverse to fit into a single category like this characteristic large nail field that is charged with a strong energy. We feel the motion of a field that sways back and forth, charged with a hardness and at the same time suffused with softness. We see the light as a part of the given matter with which the artist works. The act of creation, its own form of aggressiveness transferred from the artist's body to the nailed ground, always remains palpable. From this angle, the nail paintings are aggregates of feeling, a connection between technique and spirit, a connection between nail and painting. The technical possibilities, according to the artist, have fascinated him from the beginning not as much as the aspect that they serve as a vehicle for thought and action.

Art as Authentic Attitude and Necessary Action
The energy field "Wind", created in 2005, impresses with liveliness and presence: power, energy and strength, as well as a contemplative beauty accompanied by the fascinating movement and dynamics of a gentle wave. The danger that the rigid material may have a static appeal is dissolved by the moving play of light and shadow. The dense tangle of carpenter's nails rhythmically hammered into the wood, creates a painting full of visual violence that exerts a fascination one cannot escape: Nail by nail, placed in alternating direction in an undulating order and washed with the same white paint as the image carrier, thus forming a new surface. Uecker uses the nails to explore a three-dimensional space beyond the picture’s boundaries with flowing organic structures. Since the shadows that the nails cast change with light incidence and angle, the work gains ever new dynamic appearances, making it a transformative light object. This way Uecker creates simultaneous excitement and contemplation.

Uecker finds a uniquely individual expression despite the massiveness of the materials. In terms of the materials used for his artistic process, he has remained faithful to simple means and tools. And he has also remained true to the human body as gauger for what is possible. His first and foremost frame of reference is his own body, his own capability, which is fundamental for his forceful creation. In terms of its genesis and effectiveness, the complexity and richness of Uecker's œuvre is particularly breathtaking: this powerful poetic creation that balances opposites, unites action and contemplation, stillness and movement in a fascinating artistic whole of a powerful beauty. And yet, a permanent process of deconstruction of harmony is intensely perceptible in his works, evoking messages of emotional sentiment, borne of personal attitude.
'Paintings' like this, "Wind" but also drawings, sculptures, installations, stage sets, costumes, books, photographs and films by Günther Uecker testify to a concept in which art is a spiritual development by an inquisitive artist who continuously seeks an open field and a new scope for action. It is the dynamic, the mobility, as well as the constantly renewing cultic and cultural influences that give rise to a highly emotional pictorial power that is so sensitive to the human being. The nail paintings that Uecker made over decades are like snapshots of an artistic and physical state of mind. Depending on the point of view and the incidence of light, these 'paintings' develop a sensitive, poetic power and begin to breathe. [MvL]