HA Schult
Encyclopedia
HA Schult, born Hans-Jürgen Schult on June 24, 1939 in Parchim
, Mecklenburg
is a German installation
, happening
and conceptual art
ist known primarily for his object and performance art and more specifically his work with garbage
.
from 1958 to 1961, where he was a student of Georg Meistermann
, Joseph Fassbender
, Karl Otto Götz
and Joseph Beuys
. At that time, he was mainly inspired by three artists: Yves Klein
, Georges Mathieu
and Jackson Pollock
From 1962 to 1967 he worked as an art director
for a German bank and some industrial companies. From 1967 to 1978 he lived as an artist in Munich
and has also performed a range of diversified jobs over time, including a spell as a taxi driver. During the late 1970s Schult lived in Cologne
and from 1981 to 1986 chiefly in New York City
.
Schult has been situated in Cologne
since 1990. He was married to Elke Koska for 25 years, who also served as his muse - she was also (and still is) his manager. Since 2001, Schult's personal advisor has been Birgit Fröhlich.
He is married since 2010 with violinist Anna Zlotovskaya.
in Leverkusen
and the documenta
V in Kassel
, installed either on the floors of the museums or within large vitreous display cases. Many of these "situations" shown in over-dimensional glass show cabinets are miniature landscapes consisting of trash, small children’s playthings and bacteria, thereby promoting the archeology of an anticipated future. As these works were both inspired by the romantic painting of Caspar David Friedrich
and the modern age of consumption and waste, German critics bestowed Schult the title "Caspar David Friedrich of the consumption age."
Der Müll des Franz Beckenbauer: In 1974, Schult stole the contents of the waste containers of the famous footballer, Franz Beckenbauer
and presented what he had found in the Lenbachhaus
, Munich.
Venezia vive: In 1976, the artist filled St. Mark's Square
in Venice
with old newspapers in an overnight action that surprised the Venetian people and authorities. He called this happening Venezia vive.
Crash: As his contribution to the 1977 documenta
VI, he hired a stunt pilot to crash a Cessna
into the garbage dump on Staten Island
, New York. This happening, which was sent via satellite to the screens in Kassel, he called Crash.
Now!: In 1983, he created a paper river in downtown New York, using old issues of the New York Times and called this happening Now!
The Flügelauto (winged car) is a car as a golden bird. Created in 1991 as part of the performance “Fetisch Auto” (Fetish Car) in Cologne, this work of art is now displayed on the roof of the Kölnische Stadtmuseum (Museum of the City of Cologne). Citing the protection of historic monuments, Franz-Josef Antwerpes, the former District President of Cologne, demanded the removal of the car but the competent ministry decided that the artwork could stay in place “temporarily” - it has remained there to this day.
Trash People (Schrottarmee): Since 1996, Schult has installed one thousand life sized "Trash People" made from crushed cans, electronic waste and other rubbish as his critical commentary on constant human consumption. They travelled as a "now time expression" to the world's most important spots, among them Moscow
's Red Square
(1999), the Great Wall of China
(2001), the Pyramids of Giza (2002) and even the Antarctica (2008). The value of each individual statue is approx. EUR 2 when burnt, according to GEW, a provider of gas and electricity services.
Hotel Europe: In 1999, at Cologne-Bonn airport autobahn, Schult realized "Hotel Europe," an empty multistory building covered with 130 oversize portraits of celebrities. It was referred to as the world's largest sculpture until it was blown up on May 13, 2001.
Trees for Peace (“Friedensbäume”): HA Schult decorated the birch trees on the premises of the Zollverein
coal mine in Essen with thousands of painted, written and photographic wishes for peace.
Love Letters Building: In 2001, the artist created his "Love Letters Building" in Berlin-Mitte by covering the front of the old Berlin Postfuhramt (post office) with hundreds of thousands of love letters.
AutoDom: In 2006, together with fifteen Ford-Werke AG
apprentices in Cologne
, Schult created the "AutoDom" sculpture, using parts from Ford Fiesta and Ford Fusion cars to build a symbolic bridge between Cologne and New York City.
Save the Beach: In 2010, Schult created the world’s first hotel made of garbage in order to raise awareness to the huge amount of waste being washed up on our shores. According to the artist, “The philosophy of this hotel is to expose the damage we are causing to the sea and the coastline. We live in the era of trash and we are running the risk of becoming trash ourselves. Do we really want this world?”
"We produce trash, are born from trash, and will turn back into trash"
Parchim
Parchim is a town in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is the capital of the Ludwigslust-Parchim district. It was the birthplace of Moltke, to whom a monument was erected in 1876. Founded about 1210, one branch of the family of the duke of Mecklenburg residence in Parchim during part of the 14th...
, Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...
is a German installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
, happening
Happening
A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered art, usually as performance art. Happenings take place anywhere , are often multi-disciplinary, with a nonlinear narrative and the active participation of the audience...
and conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
ist known primarily for his object and performance art and more specifically his work with garbage
Waste
Waste is unwanted or useless materials. In biology, waste is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from living organisms, metabolic waste; such as urea, sweat or feces. Litter is waste which has been disposed of improperly...
.
Life
The son of film director Kolin Schult, HA Schult studied art at the Kunstakademie DüsseldorfKunstakademie Düsseldorf
The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, formerly Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, is the Arts Academy of the city of Düsseldorf. It is well known for having produced many famous artists, such as Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Thomas Demand, and Andreas Gursky...
from 1958 to 1961, where he was a student of Georg Meistermann
Georg Meistermann
Georg Meistermann was a German painter and draftsman who was also famous for his stained glass windows in the whole of Europe....
, Joseph Fassbender
Joseph Fassbender
Joseph Fassbender was a German painter and draughtsman.-Life and art:During the 1920s Fassbender was trained in painting by Richard Seewald at the Kölner Werkschulen. Since 1928, he ran his own studio in Cologne...
, Karl Otto Götz
Karl Otto Götz
Karl Otto Götz is a German artist who is best known for his spontaneous abstract painting in the Informel style...
and Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys was a German performance artist, sculptor, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art.His extensive work is grounded in concepts of humanism, social philosophy and anthroposophy; it culminates in his "extended definition of art" and the idea of social...
. At that time, he was mainly inspired by three artists: Yves Klein
Yves Klein
Yves Klein was a French artist considered an important figure in post-war European art. He is the leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by the art critic Pierre Restany...
, Georges Mathieu
Georges Mathieu
Georges Mathieu is a French painter in the style of lyrical abstraction.-Biography:He was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, and gained an international reputation in the 1950s as a leading Abstract Expressionist. His large paintings are created very rapidly and impulsively...
and Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
From 1962 to 1967 he worked as an art director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
for a German bank and some industrial companies. From 1967 to 1978 he lived as an artist in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
and has also performed a range of diversified jobs over time, including a spell as a taxi driver. During the late 1970s Schult lived in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
and from 1981 to 1986 chiefly in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Schult has been situated in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
since 1990. He was married to Elke Koska for 25 years, who also served as his muse - she was also (and still is) his manager. Since 2001, Schult's personal advisor has been Birgit Fröhlich.
He is married since 2010 with violinist Anna Zlotovskaya.
Field of art
Trash is an artistic material for Schult, as paint is for painters. The artist calls himself a Macher, a German word that can mean a "maker" or "worker." He has also been called the German Christo for the epic scale of his work. A pioneer of environmental awareness, he is one of the most ardent proponents of the new ecological consciousness. Art historian Jens Christian Jensen wrote about Schult: "I do not know another German artist who grasps his tasks so comprehensively, no one who has such a sense of feeling for the essence of our society. In HA Schult the gap has been closed, that has been for 200 years between art and the general public."Works
In 1969, Schult was arrested for covering a street in Munich with trash and paper, a happening he called Situation Schackstrasse. In the same year and during the early and mid-1970s, he produced Biokinetic Situations, exhibited at the Museum MorsbroichMuseum Morsbroich
The Museum Morsbroich, also called Städtisches Museum Schloss Morsbroich, is a German museum of modern art situated in Leverkusen, 20 km north of Cologne.Formerly a Baroque castle, it is now a municipal museum for the exhibition of current art...
in Leverkusen
Leverkusen
Leverkusen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany on the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the South, Leverkusen borders the city of Cologne and to the North is the state capital Düsseldorf....
and the documenta
Documenta
documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
V in Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
, installed either on the floors of the museums or within large vitreous display cases. Many of these "situations" shown in over-dimensional glass show cabinets are miniature landscapes consisting of trash, small children’s playthings and bacteria, thereby promoting the archeology of an anticipated future. As these works were both inspired by the romantic painting of Caspar David Friedrich
Caspar David Friedrich
Caspar David Friedrich was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscapes which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night skies, morning...
and the modern age of consumption and waste, German critics bestowed Schult the title "Caspar David Friedrich of the consumption age."
Der Müll des Franz Beckenbauer: In 1974, Schult stole the contents of the waste containers of the famous footballer, Franz Beckenbauer
Franz Beckenbauer
Franz Anton Beckenbauer is a German football coach, manager, and former player, nicknamed Der Kaiser because of his elegant style, his leadership, his first name "Franz" , and his dominance on the football pitch...
and presented what he had found in the Lenbachhaus
Lenbachhaus
The Lenbachhaus in Munich houses an art museum and is part of Munich's "Kunstareal" .- The building :The Lenbachhaus was built as a Florentine-style villa for the painter Franz von Lenbach between 1887 and 1891 by Gabriel von Seidl...
, Munich.
Venezia vive: In 1976, the artist filled St. Mark's Square
Piazza San Marco
Piazza San Marco , is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as "the Piazza". All other urban spaces in the city are called "campi"...
in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
with old newspapers in an overnight action that surprised the Venetian people and authorities. He called this happening Venezia vive.
Crash: As his contribution to the 1977 documenta
Documenta
documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
VI, he hired a stunt pilot to crash a Cessna
Cessna
The Cessna Aircraft Company is an airplane manufacturing corporation headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, USA. Their main products are general aviation aircraft. Although they are the most well known for their small, piston-powered aircraft, they also produce business jets. The company is a subsidiary...
into the garbage dump on Staten Island
Staten Island
Staten Island is a borough of New York City, New York, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay...
, New York. This happening, which was sent via satellite to the screens in Kassel, he called Crash.
Now!: In 1983, he created a paper river in downtown New York, using old issues of the New York Times and called this happening Now!
The Flügelauto (winged car) is a car as a golden bird. Created in 1991 as part of the performance “Fetisch Auto” (Fetish Car) in Cologne, this work of art is now displayed on the roof of the Kölnische Stadtmuseum (Museum of the City of Cologne). Citing the protection of historic monuments, Franz-Josef Antwerpes, the former District President of Cologne, demanded the removal of the car but the competent ministry decided that the artwork could stay in place “temporarily” - it has remained there to this day.
Trash People (Schrottarmee): Since 1996, Schult has installed one thousand life sized "Trash People" made from crushed cans, electronic waste and other rubbish as his critical commentary on constant human consumption. They travelled as a "now time expression" to the world's most important spots, among them Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
's Red Square
Red Square
Red Square is a city square in Moscow, Russia. The square separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod...
(1999), the Great Wall of China
Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups...
(2001), the Pyramids of Giza (2002) and even the Antarctica (2008). The value of each individual statue is approx. EUR 2 when burnt, according to GEW, a provider of gas and electricity services.
Hotel Europe: In 1999, at Cologne-Bonn airport autobahn, Schult realized "Hotel Europe," an empty multistory building covered with 130 oversize portraits of celebrities. It was referred to as the world's largest sculpture until it was blown up on May 13, 2001.
Trees for Peace (“Friedensbäume”): HA Schult decorated the birch trees on the premises of the Zollverein
Zollverein
thumb|upright=1.2|The German Zollverein 1834–1919blue = Prussia in 1834 grey= Included region until 1866yellow= Excluded after 1866red = Borders of the German Union of 1828 pink= Relevant others until 1834...
coal mine in Essen with thousands of painted, written and photographic wishes for peace.
Love Letters Building: In 2001, the artist created his "Love Letters Building" in Berlin-Mitte by covering the front of the old Berlin Postfuhramt (post office) with hundreds of thousands of love letters.
AutoDom: In 2006, together with fifteen Ford-Werke AG
Ford Germany
-Ford Motor Co. AG:Until 27 January 1950 all Ford's European operations other than in the USSR were run from Dagenham and owned by Ford Motor Company Limited, Dearborn's 55% owned subsidiary...
apprentices in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, Schult created the "AutoDom" sculpture, using parts from Ford Fiesta and Ford Fusion cars to build a symbolic bridge between Cologne and New York City.
Save the Beach: In 2010, Schult created the world’s first hotel made of garbage in order to raise awareness to the huge amount of waste being washed up on our shores. According to the artist, “The philosophy of this hotel is to expose the damage we are causing to the sea and the coastline. We live in the era of trash and we are running the risk of becoming trash ourselves. Do we really want this world?”
HA Schult Museum für Aktionskunst
In 1986, the artist founded the HA Schult Museum für Aktionskunst in Essen.Quotes
"The freedom allowed by a society has the size of the freedom it allows to its art""We produce trash, are born from trash, and will turn back into trash"
Select bibliography
- HA Schult der Macher (Cologne: Rheinland Verlag, 1978).
- HA Schult and Thomas Höpker, Now! Überdosis New York (Munich and Lucerne: Bucher, 1984).
- HA Schult: Art is Action: Actions are Experienced Pictures (Tübingen and Berlin: Wasmuth, 2001).
- "HA Schult: The Long Breath: The Journey of the Trash People." In Ina-Maria Greverus and Ute Ritschel, eds., Aesthetics and Anthropology: Performing Life, Performed Lives (Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2009), pp. 97–109.