Guido Jendritzko

From sculptor to conceptual artist: To celebrate what would have been his 100th birthday, the Von der Heydt-Museum is honouring Guido Jendritzko (1925, Kirchhain/Niederlausitz – 2009, Wuppertal) with an exhibition that provides insights into the extensive and diverse body of work of the Brandenburg-born and Berlin-trained artist, who was also a Documenta participant and a prominent figure in Wuppertal. The exhibition ranges from his early sculptures and graphics to his performance art of the 1970s, his photographic works of the 1980s, and his late serial pieces.

By illustrating Jendritzko's radical changes in artistic practice, the exhibition highlights his decade-spanning reinvention from a traditional abstract sculptor into a conceptual artist interested in contemporary criticism and cultural politics. Jendritzko originally studied sculpture at the University of the Arts in Berlin from 1950 to 1956 under Karl Hartung and Hans Uhlmann. In 1957, he received a scholarship from the 'Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft' (Cultural Circle of German Business), and in 1960 he won the Villa Romana Prize. In 1964, however, he moved to Wuppertal and began to actively participate in the city's cultural discussions and art education. Thus, in the early 1970s, he developed the new genre of the 'intimate performance', a series of nude happenings centring on the relationship between artist and audience. From the 1980s onwards, Jendritzko focused on large-scale photo installations that recontextualized these ideas into a new medium.

In Wuppertal, Jendritzko taught as a professor of free sculpture from 1972 until 1990 at the Werkkunstschule Wuppertal (School of Applied Arts), the Gesamthochschule Wuppertal (Wuppertal University of Applied Sciences) and the Bergische Universität (University of Wuppertal). The Von der Heydt-Museum houses the largest collection of works by Guido Jendritzko, including eight sculptures, numerous ink drawings, and an extensive collection of photographic works. The exhibition is complemented by numerous works from his estate that have never been publicly displayed. Additionally, his work can also be found in public spaces throughout Wuppertal. On the Kruppstrasse in front of the Uellendahl-Katernberg School, there is, for instance, a more than two-metre-high bronze sculpture that was previously exhibited at documenta II (1959) in Kassel.