G\u00fcnther Uecker and language: a huge chapter of its own in the extensive and multifaceted lifework of this significant artist \u2013 not quite as striking, but not less important and almost as virtuosic as his legendary relation to nails.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe image begins where language fails\u201d, is the way Uecker describes his understanding of these two, apparently distant basic forms of human communication. That he explicitly does not want to elevate one artistic form of expression above another, he impressively demonstrates once more with his new work. Word and image: this pair of presumable opposites has been attracting Uecker for a long time; language and script have appealed to him over and over again, have sustainably inspired him. This goes for the contents of prominent texts as much as their form, for their massage as much as their typeface as an aesthetical challenge. G\u00fcnther Uecker has repeatedly been grappling with the great documents of humanity\u2019s civilisation history, and conveyed their message through magnificent exhibitions all over the world: the Torah, the Bible, the Quran, the UN Declaration of Human Rights. In his great, almost encyclopaedic work \u201cGraphein\u201d he has dealt with not less than a dozen scripts from the past millennia, and adapted them to his own artistic handwriting \u2013 from cuneiform script over the Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek, Cyrillic up to the Latin way of writing.<\/p>\n
Also his \u201cHomage to Hafes\u201d is more than the amiable raving for the lyrics of the most famous Persian poet, but rather the vital need to translate his message of love, faith, human affection and mutual understanding through a dialogue of the arts as a bridge between Islamic culture and Western civilisation over the centuries into the present. Words turn into colours, the sound of poetry into written images.<\/p>\n
Language as an artistic source of inspiration also characterises his earlier \u201cBook of Job\u201d that Uecker interpreted already ten years ago in one impressive volume. Both art books share not alone the model of a linguistically-dexterous text, also in terms of design elements and elementary materials they seem to correspond with each other. Also this new graphic book is not the mere illustration of great literature; Uecker rather interprets the wealth of imagery in the Persian mystic\u2019s verses with the devices of his own art. Apart from the poetic power, another uniting element between Hafes\u2019 ghazals and the structures and forms in Uecker\u2019s pictures is the distinctive rhythm that forms the basis of both so effectively. In the \u201cBook of Job\u201d the as naive as existential human expectation that there exists a causal connection between personal good and personal deed gets brutally shattered \u2013 a subject matter twice as challenging for an artist who says of himself that he wants to make aggressions visible and aesthetically transform them. Compared with this, the rapture of love and the gushing dedication to God in Hafes\u2019 verses appear rather untypical for the soul landscapes in Uecker\u2019s pictures. \u201cMy entire artistic doing is a struggle for a complex human image in the process of self-recognition\u201d, he once confessed about himself and his work. With this art book the gifted frontier commuter between religion and secular art adds another impressive facet to his oeuvre. Once more the exceptional relation between man and culture, religion and art, craftsmanship and visionary design finds expression in the work of G\u00fcnther Uecker when language transforms into pictures and pictures into language: a dialogue of the arts as a contribution to the as difficult as necessary dialogue of cultures in a common world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prof. Dr. Norbert Lammert
\nPresident of the German Bundestag<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n