Gunther Uecker’s Tribute to Hafez to Move to Bushehr

TEHRAN.(Iranart) – After five showings in Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, Kerman and Rasht, German sculptor and op artist Gunther Uecker’s exhibition Tribute to Hafez will move to the southern Iranian city of Bushehr for another showcase.

The exhibit is due to open in one of the historical sites of the city on December 31, the director of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Ehsan Aqai, said in a meeting with Fatemeh Karampur, the director of the Bushehr Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance Office, on Thursday.

Karampur also said that an exhibition of visual arts by Iranian artists will open on the sidelines of the exhibit.

Tribute to Hafez is currently on view at the Rasht Central Hall and will be running until December 21.

The collection has been inspired by the ghazals of Persian poet Hafez. Uecker has created a collection of graphical works in which the ghazals are transformed into colors and the sound of the poems into written images.

This method to translate spoken language into pictorial expressions has characterized the artist’s oeuvre since the 1970s.

In 2016, Uecker first displayed his collection in Shiraz where the Mausoleum of Hafez lies. The Imam Ali (AS) Religious Arts Museum in Tehran, Isfahan Museum of Contemporary Art and Kerman Museum of Contemporary Art hosted the exhibition afterwards.

The 88-year-old Uecker is a member of the ZERO movement, best known for his signature use of nails arranged into tactile, sculptural paintings.

Uecker’s oeuvre includes paintings, art objects and installations as well as stage designs and films. He is mainly interested in the Eastern European avant-garde of the 1920s and 1930s, but he is likewise fascinated by Asian cultures and their ideas.

His works can be seen in collections and at large fairs in both the West and the East. Uecker’s artistic creativity reached a climax in 2000 with the prayer room he designed for the rebuilt Reichstag building in Berlin.

Source: Tehran Times