Provenance
Galeria Dorothea Van Der Koelen, Mayence
Catalogue Essay
As a pivotal member of the post-war Zero art movement, German artist Günther Uecker revolutionized art by using nails to explore the purest and most physical sensation of light and movement. Expressing a new and infinite possibility in art, Uecker, like the Italian Lucio Fontana, who invaded the pictorial space by incising it, liberated himself from the formal constraints of traditional painting. Instead of applying paint to canvas, Uecker hammered nails into a wooden monochromatic support creating a relief field of constantly undulating and shifting movement. The monochrome composition allows the nails to create patterns of shadow across the surface, responding tothe light in the room but also seeming to change in relation to the viewer’s own position. The nailed picture became the antithesis of the painted picture; it allowed Uecker to explore the articulation of light through the shadows created by the nails, the unchanging ritual of hammering and the violation of taboo surfaces.
The present lot is a monumental recent work in which the tightly packed nails are each inclined at such steep angles that a swirling vortex is created drawing the viewer into its epicentre. The powerful energy that emanates from the work reflects the desire of Uecker, and his fellow Zero artists, to create something new and extraordinary from such familiar ordinary, banal objects.

5

Günther Uecker

Mutation

2006
Nails on painted wood.
200 × 150 x 16 cm (78 3/5 x 59 x 6 2/5 in).
Signed, titled and dated ‘Günther Uecker Mutation 2006’ on the reverse. This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.

Estimate
£150,000 - 200,000 ♠

Sold for £223,250

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

17 Feb 2011
London

1
Wade Guyton
Untitled
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000
Sold for £213,650
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
2
Mary Heilmann
Rude Boy
Estimate £70,000 - 90,000 ‡
Sold for £103,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
3
Jim Lambie
Night Divides the Day
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ♠
Sold for £91,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
4
Lucio Fontana
Concetto spaziale, Attesa
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
5
Günther Uecker
Mutation
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ♠
Sold for £223,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
6
Robert Morris
Felt
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
7
Georg Herold
Untitled
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ♠
Sold for £121,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
8
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ♠
Sold for £361,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
9
Peter Fischli and David Weiss
4 Hostessen (4 Stewardesses)
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ♠
Sold for £277,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
10
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate £350,000 - 550,000 ‡♠
Sold for £337,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
11
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Overrun
Estimate £1,000,000 - 1,500,000 ‡
Sold for £1,127,650
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
12
Raqib Shaw
Absence of God III... And His Tears of Blood Will Drown the Cities of Men II
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡
Sold for £553,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
13
Anselm Reyle
Harmony
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ♠
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
14
Anselm Reyle
Untitled
Estimate £70,000 - 100,000 ♠
Sold for £79,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
15
Subodh Gupta
No. 1
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ‡
Sold for £121,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
16
Donald Judd
Untitled (89-30)
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ‡
Sold for £169,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
17
Ilya Kabakov and Emilia Kabakov
The Painting on an Easel
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ♠
Sold for £361,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
18
Michelangelo Pistoletto
Ritratto sigg. Lerre (Portrait of Mr. Lerre)
Estimate £70,000 - 90,000 ♠
Sold for £67,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
19
Martin Kippenberger
Mirror for Hang-Over Bud
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000
Sold for £145,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
20
Robert Rauschenberg
Address Unknown
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
21
Martin Kippenberger
Untitled
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
22
Albert Oehlen
Untitled
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ♠
Sold for £193,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
23
Karel Appel
Birds Over the Red Sea
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £205,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
24
Victor Vasarely
Cassiopée II NB
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡
Sold for £157,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
25
Arnaldo Pomodoro
Disco con Sfera
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ♠
Sold for £61,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
26
Bill Viola
Basin of Tears
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 Ω
Sold for £181,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
27
Marlene Dumas
Equality
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ♠
Sold for £121,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
28
Dan Colen
Wouldn't it be Nice
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000 †
Sold for £85,250
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.
29
Martin Creed
Work no. 230 (Don’t Worry)
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000 ♠
Sold for £51,650
Create your first list.
Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

17 Feb 2011 London

Create your first list.

Provenance

Catalogue Essay

5

Günther Uecker

Mutation

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

17 Feb 2011
London