Rika Unger

Rika Unger

Rika Unger (born May 12, 1917 in Stettin ; † September 16, 2002 in Münster ) was a German sculptor .

Life

Rika Unger was born as the third daughter of the pastor Alfred Unger and his wife Margarethe Unger, nee. Lange, born in Szczecin. She grew up in Ferndorf , Siegerland, until she was 14 years old. In 1932 her father took over the job of a pastor at the prison in Münster. There she passed the Abitur at Freiherr-vom-Stein-Gymnasium , began studying economics and trained as a youth leader. During the Second World War she was drafted as a news helper and was affected by the bombing of Münster. She lived in Steinfurt Castle for a few years after the war .

During her studies, she made contact with the animal sculptor Arnold Schlick. After the end of the war she became a master student with him. Schlick was a lecturer for artistic and scientific drawing at the University of Münster. Her further artistic training took place in an international artist community in the Netherlands, in the Mathildenhöhe artist colony in Darmstadt and with Dr. Heinrich Frieling in Salzburg. For her sculptural work she got the technical tools from stonemasons and wood sculptors. Travel followed. For four years in the summer Rika Unger traveled around with a circus (Williams, Barum, Grock), drew people and animals, and met the clown Grock .

Rika Unger was closely connected to the Evangelical Church through her work. In the mid-1960s she started working with disabled children and young people. In the 1980s she shaped her engagement in the peace movement. She was a member of the Münster sculptor group.

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Arnold Schlick, bust of Rika Unger, terracotta, 1948, Münster City Museum

Rika Unger created sculptures and reliefs in the materials terracotta , wood, stone, plaster, bronze, aluminum and steel, later in a combination of bronze and stone. At the beginning of her own work she felt connected to the work of Ernst Barlach and Henry Moore . She touched the sites of archaic art, as well as the African sculptures at the world exhibition in Brussels in 1958.

Equipment of churches

In the mid-1950s, Rika Unger received the first major orders and began to deal with the questions of modern church building. The Petrikirche in Mülheim has had bronze reliefs for the portal doors of the tower by Rika Unger with scenes from the life of St. Peter since 1959/1960. Commissioned with furnishing the Reconciliation Church in Münster, Rika Unger created the depiction of the two thieves on the cross for the entrance door wings, a large hanging wooden cross (with the death side and the resurrection side), a baptismal font and a resurrection angel. The church was consecrated in 1963. The Reconciliation Church was closed in 2007, and two of the artist's works have found an adequate setting in the chapel of the Johannesfriedhof in Gütersloh (hanging wooden cross, former entrance door). In the 1990s, the redesign of the church interior of the Jacobus parish in Blankenhagen (Gütersloh) became a central point of their work (creation window , Jacobus representation for the outside wall of the church, bronze sculpture " washing feet " above the entrance door, several windows in the parish center). The Jakobuskirche (Gütersloh) was deedicated in 2007, all works by Rika Unger were also brought to the chapel of the Johannesfriedhof in Gütersloh. An exhibition space for the church works of Rika Unger has been created there with a new sacral use.

More work

In the 1950s and 1960s, the artist dealt with the head of the Passion Christ crowned with suffering in reliefs made of wood and later also in graphic works. In impressive larger-than-life faces, Christ with the crown of thorns is depicted as a timeless image of enduring suffering. “Crowned Head” is the title of a relief made of ash wood, 1956.

Rika Unger also worked with woodcuts , linocuts and slate cuts . The artist developed a new technique from graphic paper work in the 1970s, the "Monorisse". Paper is torn in individual parts and then put back together again in parts. The motif is formed from the torn, white protruding paper edges and a newly layered paper structure. The contrast of black and colored paper adds to the effect. With the Monorissen, Rika Unger created a three-dimensional space in paper in a slight relief that opens up new artistic impressions. Luminous sculptures by the artist are terracotta vessels in several parts, in which lights are placed, which develop a special lighting effect in the dark.

Exhibitions

• 2012 “Crowned Head, works by the sculptor Rika Unger”, Münster City Museum
• 1999 Stadthausgalerie Münster
• 1997 Wattwil (Switzerland)
• 1996 Bergkamen
• 1991 Exhibition Münster
• 1986 Exhibition Münster
• 1984 Academy Leuenberg near Liestal (Switzerland)
• 1983 Exhibition Münster

Award

1997 Willy Fries Prize, Wattwil (Switzerland)

Works in public space in Münster

• Portrait of Arnold Schlick, 1948, terracotta, Münster City Museum , cabinet 33 of the permanent collection
• Portrait of Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, 1950, terracotta, Annette-von-Droste-Hülshoff-Gymnasium
• Engel, 1952, plaster, Trinity Church
• Portrait of Martin Luther, 1953, bronze, Ev. Senior Citizens' Center Martin Luther House
• Trialog, 1954, artificial stone, Rika-Unger-Galerie (outside area)
• Engel, 1955, wood, Epiphany Church
• Portrait of Baron vom Stein, 1958, plaster, Münster district government
• Portrait of Freiherr vom Stein, 1958, bronze, Freiherr-vom-Stein-Gymnasium
• Signposts - a mirror, 1972, bronze, Heinrich-Piepmeyer-Haus
• Each seed bears fruit, 1980–1991, (cycle of eight sculptures), bronze, Waldfriedhof Lauheide , next to the cemetery chapel
• Nativity scene, 1983, terracotta, Epiphany Church
• Osterstein, 1988, basalt / bronze, Ev. Perthes house
• Portrait of Georg Clemens Perthes, 1988, bronze, Ev. Perthes house
• Peace Column, 1989, basalt / bronze, Rika-Unger-Galerie (outside area)
• Awakened at sunrise, 1995, bronze / basalt, Rika-Unger-Galerie (outside area)
• Easter Angel, 1995, bronze, Ev. Student community (meditation room)
• Secret of Hearing, 2000/2001, bronze, Rika-Unger-Galerie (outdoor area)

Works by Rika Unger can be found in many churches, in various institutions and schools in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Individual evidence

1. ^ History of the Petrikirche: The church hill . (Mülheim / Ruhr, Stadtgeschichte) , accessed on November 20, 2013
2. ↑ To the Church of Reconciliation: Apostelkirchengemeinde Münster: 50 years of the cross of nails, ( Memento of the original from July 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (pdf), accessed November 20, 2013. 
3. ↑ Report of the new list: Apostelkirchengemeinde Münster: Gemeindebrief, 2/2009, (pdf), accessed on November 20, 2013.
4. ↑ Rika Unger: Six monorissas from the series “The light breaks its way” . Munster [1978]
5. ↑ Stadtmuseum Münster - exhibition information
6. ↑ 33 Cabinets in the Münster City Museum ( Memento of the original from November 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

literature

• Evangelical Women's Aid in Germany V. (Ed.): On the way. Sculptures by Rika Unger, with explanatory words and verses . [Series 1, with explanations by Gerda Drewes and poems] Ernst Kaufmann, Lahr 1952, and further editions 1954, 1958, 1962.
• Evangelical Women's Aid in Germany V. (Ed.): What is man. Sculptures by Rika Unger, with explanations by Gerda Drewes. Episode 2. Ernst Kaufmann, Lahr 1957 a. further editions.
• Rika Unger: Experienced awareness. Sculptures by Rika Unger . Introduction by Paul Wrzecionko. Munster [1965].
• Rika Unger: Hope for life, every seed bears fruit . Munster [o. J.].
• Ueli Ott: Learning to see art. Ten contemporary art examples, interpreted for group work in community and school . Constance 1988.
• Axel-Alexander Ziese: Master of the fine arts . Vol. 3. Nuremberg 1990, ISBN 3-923326-47-5 , pp. 153-160.
• Johannes Lähnemann: song sermons. With works of art by Rika Unger . Nuremberg 1996, ISBN 3-926849-17-7 .
• Rika Unger: Six monorissues from the series “Light breaks its way” . Munster [1978].
• Christ with the crown of thorns. City museum is reminiscent of the sculptor Rika Unger and her timeless symbolic language . In: Westfälische Nachrichten, Aschendorff, Münster, March 23, 2012.

Web links

• Literature by and about Rika Unger in the catalog of the German National Library
• Website of the Rika-Unger Gallery, Münster with a complete biography, created by the artist's family