Günther Uecker Value: Top Prices Paid at Auction

Spirale I/Spirale II (Doppelspirale) (1997) achieved Uecker's current auction record when it sold at Christie's London in March 2017 for around 50% above its high estimate - a substantial increase on its 2016 sale value of £906,257. This large-scale diptych from his celebrated series of nail paintings consists of two square panels, each measuring 200 × 200 cm. Hammered into the canvases with bristling precision, the centrifugal patterns of nails create dizzying whirlpools of light and shadow that seem to rotate before the viewer. For Uecker, the nail carries profound personal significance, rooted in his childhood experiences during World War II. As a teenager, he used nails to board up his family home against approaching Soviet troops, creating what he would later describe as his first “nail work.” The industrial nail - typically associated with construction and fixity - becomes a means of creating visual flux and movement in Uecker’s artwork, giving form to invisible forces of time and motion.

Both (2011) represents the mature form of Uecker's nail technique. It sold at Van Ham Kunstauktionen, Cologne, in November 2017 for more than twice its high estimate of €800,000. The piece features familiar clusters of countless nails, one slightly smaller than the other, converging in the centre of the canvas. The pair, and the work’s title, suggests both duality and relationship - themes that have preoccupied Uecker throughout his career as he explores the interplay between light and shadow, presence and absence, protection and aggression. In this case, the disparate sizing of the two spirals suggests the relationship is parenthood. Uecker created Both (2011) at the age of 81, decades after his initial experiments with nails in the late 1950s. By this point in his career, his technique had evolved from the more mechanical, pattern-based early works to more organic, intuitive compositions that reflect his deepening philosophical concerns with human existence, spirituality, and ecological awareness.

One of many works with the same title, Weisses Feld (1972), or “White Field,” sold at Sotheby's Paris in June 2021. It is the largest artwork, at 160 x 160cm, from Uecker's most sought-after decade to ever be presented at auction. It was executed exactly 10 years after the inaugural exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam of the ZERO group, and two years after Uecker's participation in the Venice Biennale. The piece features white-painted nails and cotton, and, although the materials are technically the same colour as the panel behind them, the shadows they cast give the work visual texture. Uecker's choice of white - a signature colour throughout his career - reflects his interest in purity, silence, and the void, concepts central to the ZERO group's philosophy. For Uecker, white represented the meeting point of all other colours, a concept influenced by his study of Eastern philosophy and meditation practices. The provenance of this piece is particularly noteworthy, as it was acquired directly from the artist by the previous owner in 1972 and remained in the same collection until its 2021 sale, highlighting the long-term appreciation many collectors have for Uecker's work.

Another iteration of Weisses Feld, this time from 1982, sold at Sotheby's London in February 2020. Uecker’s White Field artworks are the most stringent example of his unique approach to materiality and light, a concern that developed during his association with the ZERO group, which prioritised “a zone of silence and of pure possibilities for a new beginning” according to group co-founder Otto Piene. Each ZERO artist aimed to turn their materials into vehicles for spiritual and perceptual exploration, offering meditative experiences through monochromatic, and often unexpected, compositions of objects and patterns. As the viewer moves around Uecker’s nail works, the shifting play of light across the nail heads creates an illusion of movement, a strategy Uecker described as a means to “objectify, to create a situation of freedom.”

This later iteration of Weisses Feld from 1994, sold at Ketterer Kunst GmbH in December 2019 for almost double its high estimate. By the 1990s, Uecker's work had gained significant international recognition, with major retrospectives reinforcing his position as one of Germany's most important post-war artists. In 1993, a comprehensive retrospective at Kunsthalle München celebrated his contributions to contemporary art, shortly after a significant exhibition at the Central House of Artists in Moscow in 1988. The consistently high valuation of Uecker's Weisses Feld series across different decades shows the enduring appeal of his work and his ability to create endless variations on a single idea. As Uecker once noted, “The emotions are in the hand. The hand is the tool and the workplace is art.”

Hommage À Paul Scheerbart (1960), otherwise known as Scheerbartwesen, sold at Ketterer Kunst GmbH, Munich, in June 2015 for more than three times its high estimate. It pays tribute to the German author and visionary Paul Scheerbart, whose writings on glass architecture and cosmic consciousness influenced many avant-garde artists. Rather than covering the canvas in nails that create a full, complete pattern, this piece instead uses a central organic shape that evokes both cosmic expansion and concentrated energy - key concepts to Scheerbart’s work on transcendence and the relationships between material and spiritual worlds. Uecker's homage works represent an important aspect of his practice: his dialogue with artistic and intellectual predecessors. Similar homages include his Hommage À Fontana (1972), acknowledging the influence of Italian artist Lucio Fontana, whose slashed canvases explored similar territory to Uecker's nail penetrations, both artists breaking through the two-dimensional surface to create works that engage with real space.

Zärtlicher Garten (1964), which sold at Ketterer Kunst GmbH, Munich, in December 2018, was created at a pivotal point in Uecker's career. The year 1964 marked his international breakthrough, with other works from the same year entering prestigious collections including the MoMA in New York and the Nelson Rockefeller Collection (formerly in Frank Sinatra's collection). The title “Gentle Garden” might seem incongruous with the sharp, industrial character of nails, but it reflects Uecker's view that his nail works express a form of tenderness rather than aggression. As Uecker himself stated: “I have never regarded myself as an aggressor. The aggression I am imputed to does not exist. It is tenderness with a certain impertinence, a kind of intrusiveness. This tenderness is a longing for love.” This work also has a rich exhibition history, having been shown at Licht Bewegung Farbe at Kunsthalle Nürnberg in 1967 and at major ZERO retrospectives at Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 2015.

Energiefeld (2008) sold at Ketterer Kunst GmbH, Munich, in June 2021, and represents one of Uecker’s more recent nail relief artworks, and the culmination of nearly 50 years of creative experimentation with the concept. The concept of an "energy field" aligns with Uecker's longstanding interest in the immaterial aspects of art - not just the physical presence of the nails themselves, but the invisible forces they seem to channel and make visible. Throughout his career, Uecker has been concerned with art's ability to capture and make visible that which normally escapes our senses. As Uecker once described, "The shifting daylight creates shadows in the nail fields like those on a sundial" - Uecker’s work is uniquely affected by the passage of time, transforming static materials into living experiences.

Another example of Uecker’s Homage works, Hommage À Fontana I (1962), sold at Ketterer Kunst GmbH, Munich, in June 2014 for four times its high estimate. The work pays tribute to Italian artist Lucio Fontana, whose work exploring the concepts of spatiality had a profound influence on the ZERO group. Uecker created the piece during his first years with the group, after joining in 1961. The piece represents a significant historical connection between two of the most innovative post-war European art movements: Fontana's Spatialism and the ZERO group's experiments with light, movement, and new materials. While Fontana penetrated the canvas with cuts, Uecker did so with nails. In his early career, as his style was fully taking shape, Uecker engaged with many of the artistic dialogues that would shape European post-war avant-garde practice. The ZERO group, which Uecker joined alongside founders Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, was dedicated to finding a new means of artistic expression after the devastation of World War II, focusing on light, movement, space, and new materials.

Weisser Schrei (1986), or White Scream, rounds of this list with its July 2015 sale at Sotheby's London. At the time of its creation, in the 1980s, Uecker was incorporating more Expressionist elements into his work - something that can clearly be seen in the almost aggressive composition of this piece. Although this piece was created two decades after the dissolution of the ZERO group in 1966, it still shows Uecker’s commitment to the principles that defined the group. By the 1980s, however, his work had begun to engage more explicitly with political and ecological concerns, reflecting his growing sense of art's responsibility to address pressing global issues. As art critic Francesca Gavin noted, "[Uecker] takes the smallest elements of human existence and transforms them into pieces brimming with empathy and beauty." This transformation of humble materials into vehicles for profound expression is at the heart of Uecker's enduring appeal, both artistically and in the auction market.