Günther Uecker, ZERO artist known for nail works, dies at 94

Günther Uecker, a German artist associated with the Zero group, has died. From 1960 to 1966, he worked with Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, advocating monochromes and light installations against the prevailing gestural painting in Germany. Uecker began incorporating nails into his work in 1956, and after Zero dissolved in the mid-1960s, nails became his signature motif. He hammered nails en masse onto canvases and everyday objects like chairs and pianos, describing the act as violent yet meditative in repetition. His work was politically charged; in 1968 he and Gerhard Richter staged a 'kiss-in' at Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, and in 1978 he rode a camel through Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In the 1980s, he created ash paintings in response to Chernobyl and later exhibited fabric works with human rights messages in China.