Günther Uecker

Painted with watercolors
in blinding light
on an island
in the wide, wide sea

—Günther Uecker

Günther Uecker’s watercolors are painted spontaneously in response to his encounters with nature during his journeys around the world. Intimate in theme and scale, these cycles of watercolors explore the personal impact of the artist’s travels. Working with easily transportable media, Uecker is able to paint on site, responding to diverse landscapes, plant life, architecture, and qualities of light and atmosphere. In turn, the works on paper abstract the artist’s expeditions through their intense palettes and idiosyncratic forms. Reflecting the dynamism of the artist’s aesthetic responses to these geographically and ecologically distinct places, Uecker’s watercolors operate as diaristic notations, recording his subjective responses to his excursions.

Never before exhibited, Meer (Sea) dates from 2000 and conveys the artist’s impressions of a view of the ocean from the shore of the Western Sahara. The watercolor’s abstract bands of saturated color encompass the entirety of the spectrum, conveying layers of water, land, and atmosphere, all imbued with an intensity of observation and feeling.

Uecker’s watercolors, acutely public through their notation of the artist’s interactions with the outside world, contrast with his nail paintings, which are profoundly private, made in the solitude of his studio. Similarly, while the works on paper index the artist’s external impressions, the nail paintings act as vessels for Uecker’s intellectual involvement with contemporary issues. Yet, the two contrasting bodies of work are united by the fluidity of their forms; both nail paintings and watercolors express motion, physical change, and spiritual transformation.