Ulrich Rückriem

(Düsseldorf, Germany, 1938)

Ulrich Rückriem was born in Düsseldorf in 1938. He worked as an apprentice in a stonemason’s workshop where he learnt the craft and technique of stone cutting, filing, splitting, smoothing and polishing. In 1959 he became a journeyman in the building site of Cologne Cathedral. Since the 1960s he worked as an independent sculptor. His sculptures have been exhibited in major solo exhibitions in Krefeld, Eindhoven, Paris, and Frankfurt. In 1978 he took part in the Venice Biennale as a representative of the Federal Republic of Germany. After teaching at the Kunstakademie in Hamburg and the Staatliche Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, he teaches at the Stadel School in Frankfurt. He alternates his residence between County Wicklow, Ireland, and Frankfurt, Germany.

One of the peculiarities of this sculptor is that he does not have his own studio. He usually sculpts in the quarry where he finds the stone. He never carves his stones into a shape that is not his own, but the original block of stone, as it is extracted from the quarry wall, remains visible as a base or point of origin. This is what happens with one of his favourite themes – stelae. They explore the various possible ways of dividing a vertical rectangular stone and combine craftsmanship and aesthetic approaches. The extraction marks and irregular fissure lines emphasise the manual operation; the proportions and the combination of the sides emphasise the artistic operation.