FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ULRICH RÜCKRIEM AT THE DONALD YOUNG GALLERY
Through August 2004

The Donald Young Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of large scale granite sculpture and drawings by German artist Ulrich Rückriem.

The beauty of Rückriem's work lies in its clarity and its simplicity.   In the main gallery are four monumental rows of Spanish Rosa Porinjo Granite split vertically.   Cut from a single piece of granite, each of the four rows is further cut into four equal parts.   The rough pink surface of the stone reveals the purity of the natural material while the splits reveal the process of the stone's transformation into sculpture.   The austere appearance of the installation recalls a minimalist approach, yet the presence of the cuts and splits in the stone display the artist's intervention in the creation of the sculpture.   Of his method Rückriem has said, "My basic principle is: I start from an idea and from the material.   It is not fixed which of the two comes in the first place.   For me, sculpture begins before design. When I speak of sculpture I think of material, form, mass, process and the location where it will be placed.   All this refers to content.   Form is dependent of material, but the material also depends on the chosen form, on the necessary process, as well as the location."

Additional work in the exhibition includes three granite blue de vire sculptures which date from 1991: a column, a cube and a floor piece.   These pieces further reveal Rückriem's interest in the stonemason's vocabulary of splitting and cutting stone.   The column with its architectural and historical references is used repeatedly in his work.   In this example Rückriem has cut and finished the stone and then split it one third of the way from the base.   The top two thirds are then split vertically into four equal parts.   The cube is split in half with the top half quartered.   The floor piece also displays a fundamental dichotomy of rustication and refinement through the contrast of the smooth polished surface with the rough cut edges on the sides of the sculpture (note this piece will be installed mid-summer).

Also included in the exhibition are a series of drawings in groups of two, three or four.   The drawings, which consist of graphite on layered transparent paper, are geometric compositions which relate to the way in which he cuts and splits stone.   With each layer of paper, a different section of the composition is drawn in with dark graphite.   As the papers are layered on top of one another, the graphite sections underneath the transparent paper develop into varying shades of gray depending on the position of the sheet in the stack.   The graphite drawn on the top layer is intensely black where as the graphite on the second layer and subsequent layers more subdued and velvety gray.

Rückriem is the major German sculptor of his generation and has shown widely in Europe including Documenta 5, 7, 8 and 9 and in 1978 he represented Germany at the Venice Biennale.   Rückriem's work is included in prominent private and museum collections in the US and Europe, including the Tate Gallery, London; the National Gallery, Berlin; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and the Art Institute of Chicago This exhibition marks Rückriem's third solo exhibition with the Donald Young Gallery and will be his first in Chicago since 1988.   Born in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1938, the Rückriem now lives and works in Cologne.

Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 to 5:30 and Saturday, 11:00 to 5:30.   If you would like more information, please contact Emily Letourneau at 312.455.0100.