Ulrich Erben

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Ulrich Erben (born March 26, 1940 in Düsseldorf ) is a German painter . From 1980 to 2005 he was professor of painting at the Art Academy in Münster .

life and work

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Ulrich Erben spent his youth on the Lower Rhine and in Rome , where the family moved in 1956. From 1958 to 1965 he studied at the art academies in Hamburg , Urbino , Venice , Munich and Berlin . Starting with landscapes and still lifes , his pictures increasingly acquired geometric shapes. Interrupted by a long stay in Paris in 1963, he commuted between Italy and his home on the Lower Rhine during these years.

In 1966, Erben married the writer Ingrid Bachér and returned to the Lower Rhine. In 1967 he traveled to the USA for his first stay . In the intensive examination of landscape and architecture and their mythological meaning, shapes and colors were reduced. Even in the early years, "the landscape, as a bearer of memory, became a central category of heirs of art."

In 1968 Erben created the first " white pictures". They are defined by a white zone in the center of the picture, which differs from a more matt, also white background. In this process, Erben developed his main theme, the mutual relationship between non-representational and simple areas of form. He was primarily interested in the boundaries, which are also understood as connections, the formation of space without perspective and the underlay of the white and later colored surfaces with layers of color that are sometimes barely perceptible in their different tonality.

Simultaneously with the "white pictures" and the preoccupation with their lighting effects, light objects were created from 1972 (first execution for the "Scene Rhein Ruhr '72" in the Museum Folkwang , Essen) and murals. From 1973 photography was added as a form of artistic expression.

In 1975 Erben moved to Düsseldorf without giving up the house in Goch . As a further development of the "white pictures" , the first colored, almost monochrome works were created in 1977 , which were exhibited at Documenta VI in Kassel.

In 1978, Erbe's images changed significantly. He now brought pure colors and irregular shapes onto the canvas in one painting process. The result was the "prima-vista" series as well as pictures of limited and unlimited space, "interiors" and "exteriors" . But here, too, the “tension between painterly autonomy and formal order” is a determining principle. From 1979, Erben also realized large spatial images, which consist of individual, serially arranged sheets of paper. The transformation of the real space through painting was repeatedly the subject of work.

In 1980 Erben was appointed professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy , Münster department (later Münster Art Academy ). He has been retired since 2005 .

In 1988, Erben returned to stricter geometrical picture divisions, which show a clear reference to the early "white pictures" . Using a different painting technique (acrylic and pigments) he created a series of pictures that Erben calls "colors of memory" : pictures whose colors intensify each other to create a light-like appearance and work in a balance of harmony and disharmony. The "Siria" work group from 2009/2010 developed a comparable, but still increased spatial and light effect, which goes back to a trip through the desert landscapes of Syria undertaken in 2007 .

In 1992, Erben became a member of the Fine Arts section of the Academy of Arts in Berlin. On the occasion of a solo exhibition at the Shiga Museum of Modern Art, Osaka, he went on a study trip to Japan .

Since 1993, Erben has been realizing cross-room wall designs in public buildings, including in Hanover, Essen, Stuttgart and Berlin. In museums or in connection with exhibition projects, there are now wall paintings or installations for temporary spaces.

Since 1988 he has also been using lacquer paint, initially for small-format, figuratively readable pictures with echoes of Italian landscape motifs under the theme "what I see" . He later also used varnish for large-format multi-part paintings. Erben is now increasingly picking up on earlier topics and reinterpreting them.

As a result of the "Siria" group of works , Erben's pictures from 2010 onwards show a greater variety of geometric shapes and their arrangements. Starting in 2014, Erben brings immaterial movement and, at the same time, light-like calm into his pictures, which he calls the collective title "Determination of the Unlimited" , through subdued color transitions that take place within the formal division .

Erben lives and works in Düsseldorf, Goch and Bagnoregio (Italy).

Awards

Works in public space (art in architecture)

  • 1988 Kleve: Klever Raum, Museum Haus Koekkoek
  • 1994 Hanover: Lower Saxony Savings Banks and Giro Association
  • 1990 Rome: Piazza Bologna metro station
  • 2001 Berlin: Jakob-Kaiser-Haus (Dorotheenblocks)
  • 2002 Berlin: Headquarters of the German Savings Banks and Giro Association (Sparkassenhaus)
  • 2008 Freiburg: New center for biosystems analysis, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg
  • 2012 Bochum: New high school

Works in public collections (selection)

  • Daimler Art Collection, Stuttgart and Berlin: Membrane II. 1995, acrylic and pigment on canvas, 250 × 210 cm '.
  • Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen: untitled. 1975, oil on canvas, 120 × 100 cm, Inv.-No .: 1564–2014 / 12 '
  • LWL Museum for Art and Culture, Münster (formerly Westf. State Museum for Art and Culture): Balance. 1989, acrylic and pigment on canvas, 170 × 200 cm.
  • Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf: Dux. Bohemian. 1994, acrylic and pigment on canvas, 195 × 145 cm.
  • Museum Kurhaus, Kleve: prima vista (gray). 1985, oil on canvas, 190 × 150 cm.
  • Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich: Untitled (1074 1274-I). 1974, oil on canvas, 130 × 200 cm, Inv.-No .: 14419.
  • Collection of contemporary art of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn: Untitled. 1973, oil on canvas, 190 × 150 cm.
  • Sindelfingen show: Vertical Continuum (double image), acrylic and pigment on canvas, each 215 × 150 cm.
  • From the Heydt Museum, Wuppertal: Metamorphoses. 2004, acrylic and pigment on canvas, 270 × 190 cm.

Exhibitions (selection)

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

  • 1973 Städtische Kunsthalle , Düsseldorf: Prospect 73 - Maler, Painters, Peintres
  • 1977 Documenta VI . kassel
  • 1982 Neue Nationalgalerie , Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin: Hommage à Barnett Newman
  • 1985/1986 Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin: Art in the Federal Republic of Germany 1945–1985

Further literature / exhibition catalogs

  • Ulrich Erben - fields and rooms, picture collage drawings. Catalog for the exhibition in the Kunsthalle zu Kiel, 25.1. - 22.3. 1981, in the Braunschweiger Kunstverein, April 10th. - 31.05. 1981 and the Kunsthalle Tübingen, July 11th. - 16.08.1981, Kiel 1981
  • Ulrich Erben - Elementary Painting. Catalog for the exhibition in the Kunsthalle Mannheim, April 7th. - 20.05. 1984
  • Dieter Honisch (Vorw.): 1945–1985 Art in the Federal Republic of Germany. National Gallery. Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-87584-158-1 .
  • Erben - The purple of words, colors of memory. Catalog for the exhibition at the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, 19.05. - 08.07. 1990, Düsseldorf 1990, ISBN 3-925974-15-6 .
  • White is color - Ulich Erben, pictures 1968–1978. Catalog for the exhibition in the Westphalian State Museum for Art and Cultural History, Münster, April 5th. - May 24th 1992, Karl Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld 1992, ISBN 3-924639-20-5 .
  • Ulrich Erben - What I see, pictures from Italy 1998–2001. Catalog for the exhibition in the Museum Kurhaus Kleve, April 21. - 30.06. 2002, in the art museum Dieselkraftwerk Cottbus, 19.01. - 23.03 - 2003 and the Von der Heydt - Museum, Wuppertal, 20.11. 2004 - March 21. 2005, Kleve 2002, ISBN 3-934935-08-7 .
  • Ulrich Erben - recipient of the Otto Ritschel Prize 2003. Catalog for the exhibition in the Museum Wiesbaden, 23.11. 2003 - March 21. 2004, edited by Hanne Dannenberger and Volker Rattemeyer , Wiesbaden 2003, ISBN 3-89258-057-X .
  • Ulrich Erben. published by galeria studio g7 di Ginevra grigolo, Damiani Editore, Bologna 2010, ISBN 978-88-6208-130-6 .
  • Ulrich Erben - desire and calculation. Catalog for the exhibition in the MKM Museum of Modern Art Duisburg, 28.10. 2011 - 01/29 Published in 2012 by Walter Smerling and Eva Müller-Remmert, Wienand Verlag, Cologne 2011, ISBN 978-3-96098-631-7 .
  • Ulrich Erben. Establishing the unlimited. Catalog for the exhibition in the Josef Albers Museum Quadrat Bottrop, edited by Heinz Liesbrock, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König, Cologne 2019, ISBN 978-3-96098-631-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For the biographical data see: Ulrich Erben - Painting, edited by Ferdinand Ullrich, Verlag Kettler, Böhnen 2012, ISBN 978-3-86206-121-1 , page 76
  2. ↑ Heinz Liesbrock: Ulrich Erben. Establishing the Unlimited, catalog for the exhibition in the Josef Albers Museum Quadrat Bottrop . Ed .: Heinz Liesbrock. Cologne 2019, p. 12 .
  3. ^ Volker Rattemeyer: Ulrich Erben - winner of the Otto Ritschel Prize, catalog for the exhibition in the Wiesbaden Museum . Ed .: Hanne Dannenberger, Volker Rattemeyer. Wiesbaden 2003.
  4. ↑ Biography in tabular form: Ulrich Erben - Lust und Kalkül, catalog for the exhibition at the MKM Museum for Modern Art Duisburg, Wienand Verlag, Cologne 2011, ISBN 978-3-96098-631-7 , p. 101; see also: Ulrich Erben. Times, catalog for the exhibition at Museum Goch, Pagina Verlag, Goch 2016, p. 47 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Heirs, Ulrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf