“Zero is silence. Zero is the beginning. [...] Zero is white [...].” These are the words Günther Uecker, Heinz Mack, and Otto Piene used to describe their radical artistic new beginning in their “ZERO” manifesto from 1963. Founded by Mack and Piene in Düsseldorf in 1958, Uecker joined the avant-garde group in 1961. Today, he is considered one of its most prominent representatives. It was the period after the unfathomable atrocities of World War II, the moment when Germany had begun to rise from the rubble and face its historical guilt. At this decisive moment, this young German avant-garde artist group also advocated a radical new beginning characterized by purified aesthetics. Uecker's revolutionary work, in particular, set a clear and distinctive example to this day. White, three-dimensional, and vigorously nailed, Uecker's early nail pictures from the early 1960s offer a completely new visual experience. The light and shadows of the nail heads, which change depending on the viewer's perspective, create an interactive visual experience that extends from the wall into the room and establishes a deeply sensual connection between art and space. This artistic intention was pursued simultaneously by various avant-garde artists in Europe, primarily in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands: Manzoni's “Achromes,” which pushed the boundaries of the canvas into the room, and Lucio Fontana's famous “Concetti spaziali,” which destroyed the surface of the canvas, are probably the best-known examples of this aesthetically minimalist avant-garde movement today. Like Uecker's famous nail pictures, they also break the limits of the classic panel painting. In 1962, the year this work was created, Uecker's nail pictures were presented alongside works by, among others, Fontana and Manzoni in the exhibition “Nul 62” at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The exhibition was entirely dedicated to this radical new beginning of the European avant-garde. Uecker had just graduated from the Düsseldorf Academy and was in his thirties when he created his first nail paintings and nail objects, which would become the international trademark of his oeuvre. The three-part work “Anvers” is an early, characteristic, and absolutely extraordinary piece. Created at the beginning of Uecker’s “ZERO” period, the expansive presence of “Anvers” confronts us as the ideal embodiment of this radical new beginning in avant-garde art. With “Anvers,” Uecker created something very special. Although the work is a bold negation of classical painting, both in terms of technique and aesthetics, its particular fascination and almost meditative aura lie in its tripartite structure, which is unique within Uecker’s oeuvre and formally references the tradition of medieval altarpieces.
Antwerp (French: “Anvers”), where Uecker had a studio at the time, was an important center of medieval altar art in the 15th and 16th centuries, home to several master workshops. The extraordinary talent Peter Paul Rubens also came from there and was an apprentice of Otto van Veen in Antwerp. With the title “Anvers” and its tripartite structure, Uecker cleverly referenced the art-historical tradition and the roots of Western painting dating back to the Middle Ages, which “ZERO” sought to overcome with force. The tradition is present, even though Uecker abandoned it with an aesthetic bang, so to speak, in this early and outstanding “ZERO” creation. Due to its tripartite nature, “Anvers” is an impressive solitaire in Uecker's oeuvre. However, its serial nature and consistent format also make it a decisive milestone, as Uecker's internationally acclaimed nail fields were henceforth regularly created in a series of works of the same format. This is also true of the ten-part group of works entitled “Weiße Felder” (White Fields, 1964, each 87 x 87 x 6.5 cm), created two years after “Anvers,” one of which is now part of the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. [JS]