2866 - Adolf Luther (1912, Uerdingen – 1990, Krefeld)

Adolf Luther (1912, Uerdingen – 1990, Krefeld) Concave Mirror Object (1968/1972) 7 x 7 square concave mirrors, mounted on a plywood panel with a black border on the front. Signed and dated “Luther 68/72” on the reverse in red felt-tip pen. Luther was a master of light, experimenting with its phenomena in both outdoor and indoor spaces, which he filled with various types of light. With his avant-garde mirror objects and oversized lenses, he became one of the most significant German representatives of conceptual light art, optical art, and kinetic art in the second half of the 20th century; Beginning in 1958–59, he focused on black “matter paintings”; later, he explored the influences and effects of light in terms of its energetic and optical properties, creating a fascinating sense of immateriality through refraction and reflection. As a result, Luther belonged to the inner circle of the “ZERO” group led by Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, and Günther Uecker, with whom he exhibited from 1963 to 1965. Outside the art scene, Luther became known to a wider public primarily through his concave mirror objects, which he closely integrated—as “integrations”—with the surrounding, mostly public spaces and architecture. Beginning around 1969, he realized numerous such “integrations” in the form of concave-mirror walls, stelae, and objects in many German cities: including for the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, at the former Chancellery in Bonn in 1975–76, at the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf in 1976–78, and at the “Spiegelteich” (Mirror Pond) at the Bundestag building (Altes Wasserwerk) in Bonn in 1982. Luther’s concave mirror works can even be found at the German embassies in Brasília and London. After Luther had already created his first individual lens installations in 1969–70, the 1980s saw installations featuring rows of suspended lenses on Hoeschplatz in front of the Leopold Hoesch Museum in Düren (now in the museum’s atrium) and, in 1990, his “Linsenallee” (Avenue of Lenses), consisting of standing lenses, on Ostwall in Krefeld. Due to changes in the seasons and times of day, weather, the movement of the lenses, their location, and the viewer’s movement, these works—like his concave mirror “Integrations”—captivate with their shifting light effects. 81.5 cm x 81.5 cm x 4.5 cm. Aluminum frame with acrylic glass cover. The work is listed and documented in the internal catalog raisonné of the Adolf Luther Foundation, Krefeld. Provenance: Private collection, Germany. Concave mirror object, 1968/1972. 7 x 7 square concave mirrors, mounted on a black plywood panel. Signed and dated “Luther 68/72” in red felt-tip pen on the reverse. Aluminum and acrylic glass frame.