Hermann Goepfert

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"KlimaGoepfert-Brunnen", 1968 of the Goepfert-Hölzinger planning association (today dismantled) in Frankfurt's north-west center in front of the community center

Hermann Goepfert (born November 5, 1926 in Bad Nauheim , † February 4, 1982 in Antwerp ) was a German artist. Within the ZERO movement, he represented the integration of art and architecture most strongly. His artist friends and cooperation partners included Günther Uecker , Lucio Fontana , Piero Manzoni , Herman de Vries and Jef Verheyen .

Hermann Goepfert, fountain at the Eschenheimer tower , 1968
Kinetic spatial object for the Federal Horticultural Show in Bonn, 1978–79, Goepfert-Hölzinger planning association

Life

Hermann Goepfert studied at night school from 1947 to 1951 and then from 1951 to 1958 at the State University of Fine Arts in Frankfurt am Main. He set up his first studio in 1957 not far from the university. In the following years he took part in various group exhibitions in Frankfurt, which heralded a turn away from the informal and postulated »New German tendencies«. In 1961 the very active Goepfert was invited along with Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker to the exhibition 30 young Germans in the Städtisches Museum, Schloss Morsbroich, Leverkusen. The exchange with artists and institutions outside Frankfurt began. Goepfert quickly became an important representative of the ZERO movement in Frankfurt, and actions with the art theorist Bazon Brock and the gallery owner Rochus Kowallek attracted further attention. International artists came to Goepfert on the Main in the 1960s to exchange ideas and work with him. In 1962 Goepfert took part in the NUL exhibition in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and in 1963 in the European Avant-garde exhibition in the Schwanensaal in Frankfurt. In 1964, both his aluminum reflectors and his Optophonium (light-sound machine) were shown at documenta III in Kassel, and in the same year he was invited to the ZERO exhibitions in London and Philadelphia. In 1965 Goepfert exhibited together with Jef Verheyen and Lucio Fontana in Berlin and Frankfurt. The previous joint work was also part of the presentations. This was followed by invitations to other ZERO exhibitions in Washington and Milan and exhibitions such as Light and Movement - Kinetic Art, Kunsthalle Bern and Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Lumiere-Mouvement et Optique, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Kinetics and Objects, State Gallery Stuttgart , or Sceno et graphico, Venice Biennale.

In 1965, Hermann Goepfert founded the planning association for new forms of the environment together with the architect Johannes Peter Hölzinger , and one year later he rented a small second studio in Antwerp until 1968. In 1966 Goepfert was represented in the exhibitions white on white, Kunsthalle Bern, in 1967 in Light-Movement-Color, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, in Magic of Light, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen and in the world exhibition in Montreal. Also in 1967 he had a solo exhibition at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. In his most important solo show during his lifetime, Goepfert showed retrospectively static and kinetic works that had been created since the white paintings and that had only light as their theme. In 1968 he took part in the Triennale in Milan and in 1969 in the Biennale in Paris. In 1970 he received a Paris scholarship from the Federal Republic of Germany and lived and worked for a year at the Cité Internationale des Arts. In 1971 he moved permanently to Antwerp. In the 1970s, exhibitions on his integrative work followed, such as Architectural Speculations in 1970, Museum Schloss Morsbroich, Leverkusen, or exhibitions in the ZERO context, such as 1974 ZERO, examples from the Lenz Collection, Städelmuseum Frankfurt, or 1979 Zero, pictorial presentations of a European Avantgarde 1958–1964, Kunsthaus Zürich, and Zero Internationaal Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp. In 1982 Goepfert died unexpectedly in Antwerp.

“Building living spaces out of light objects is everyone's dream,” is a key phrase from Hermann Goepfert. Art and social engagement should interpenetrate and not only shape the environment, but also set social processes in motion. Goepfert's intention was to design a work of art openly and to allow the viewer to participate in the creation process. For Goepfert, the main focus was on light as a kinetic moment and direct design medium. "Light is form" was Goepfert's credo, who wanted to make the aesthetic quality of light visible through pre-formed instruments. It was above all natural light that he was trying to depict. The only use of artificial light, triggered by electronic impulses, was his optophonics, which he constructed with static metal inserts in analogy to his white images. His first Optophonium, which is now in the Krefeld museums, consists of a wooden wall that is kept white and into which numerous pieces of aluminum are embedded. At the beginning of his artistic practice there are various steps of reduction. The first white pictures were created in the late 1950s. After 1960 Goepfert preferred polished metals. Silvery metal sheets turned out to be ideal, as they have a high degree of reflection due to their smooth surface and are also easy to shape. In the early 1960s, he also replaced the canvas with metal, with the intention of including the space more closely. After 1962 the large group of works of aluminum reflectors was created, the individual works of which are basically the same: In front of an operated aluminum plate, which is attached to a black surface and is usually concave, hangs in the middle and at a short distance an aluminum structure, which is at the top and bottom Edge is flexibly attached.

From 1965 until his death, Goepfert worked with the Bad Nauheim architect Johannes Peter Hölzinger in the planning community for new forms of the environment. In 1967 the community designed the Karlsruhe Palace Park including the lakeside restaurant for the 1967 Federal Horticultural Show . The restaurant was removed after the garden show ended. Another collaboration project is the "Spoon Forest" in the Rheinaue (Bonn) from 1979.

Hermann Goepfert lived in Frankfurt am Main and after 1971 mainly in Antwerp , where he died in 1982. His grave is in the Frankfurt main cemetery .

Public collections

literature

  • Beate Kemfert (Ed.): Hermann Goepfert , Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2015.

Web links

Commons : Hermann Goepfert  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Goepfert, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and object artist
DATE OF BIRTH November 5, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Bad Nauheim
DATE OF DEATH 4th February 1982
Place of death Antwerp