Bodo Sperling (born 6 May 1952) is a German
artist
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, t ...
,
painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...
, and
inventor
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an id ...
.
Life
Sperling grew up in
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian dialects, Hessian: , "Franks, Frank ford (crossing), ford on the Main (river), Main"), is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as o ...
,
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
,
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
and
Berlin
Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
. He started his artistic career in Amsterdam. There he sold his pictures he had painted during the day on the street every night at Club
Paradiso (Amsterdam)
Paradiso is a Dutch music venue and cultural centre located in Amsterdam.
History
It is housed in a converted former church building that dates from the nineteenth century and that was used until 1965 as the meeting hall for a liberal Dutch ...
.
One focus of his work is the development of
scientific models by looking at the
aesthetics
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, Epistemology, knowledge, Ethics, values, Philosophy of ...
, and the
implementation
Implementation is the realization of an application, or execution of a plan, idea, model, design, specification, standard, algorithm, or policy.
Industry-specific definitions
Computer science
In computer science, an implementation is a real ...
of scientific models in objects. In 1985, he calls his art direction "Objectivism".
Another focus of his work is the documentation of physical processes through their aesthetic. The German philosopher
Thomas Metzinger
Thomas Metzinger (born 12 March 1958) is a German philosopher and professor of theoretical philosophy at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz. , he is an Adjunct Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, a co-founder of thGe ...
, manager of the workspace Neurophilosophy at
Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies
The Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) is a private-public institution for basic theoretical research in various areas of science
focusing on interdisciplinary research. It is located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, at its own home at ...
. ''Science Arts'' writes in the catalogue ''Transparency of Consciousness'' that "Its crystal panels were probably the reason why so much attention, because they work in a particular object, the quasi-spiritual principles of order in nature itself to turn aesthetic intuition accessible."
(See Figure Crystal Object Objectivism)
Since 1985, he has worked with
computers as a design tool. Two of his paintings are exhibited at the
Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
The ZKM , Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (until March 2016: ZKM Center for Art and Media Technology), a cultural institution, was founded in 1989. and since 1997 is located in a listed industrial building in Karlsruhe, Germany, a former mun ...
.
1990/1991 Spokesman of the Federal Association of Artists BBK Frankfurt. 1990 Sperling served as authorized negotiators, negotiations for unification of the Federal Association of Artists with the
GDR
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
- Artists Association. He was one of the four founders of the
East Side Gallery,
Berlin Wall,
Berlin
Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...
. in March 1990.
In May 2011 he filed with other artists of the "founding Initiative East Side" complaint before the District Court of Berlin, due to destruction of art and infringement of copyright. The redevelopment of the East Side Gallery in 2009, destroyed most of a listed building images, and their conceptual artistic Character of 1990.
Sperling 1992 installed on the 1st Total German artist Congress in
Potsdam
Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...
, a five-meter high
mobile
Mobile may refer to:
Places
* Mobile, Alabama, a U.S. port city
* Mobile County, Alabama
* Mobile, Arizona, a small town near Phoenix, U.S.
* Mobile, Newfoundland and Labrador
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels
* Mobile ...
, which, illuminated by slides, the impression of a constantly changing
3-D film
3D films are motion pictures made to give an illusion of three-dimensional solidity, usually with the help of special glasses worn by viewers. They have existed in some form since 1915, but had been largely relegated to a niche in the motion pict ...
produced. From 1980 the first pictures emerged from
crystals
A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...
and crystal panels. Sperling describes his artistic work as
Objectivism
Objectivism is a philosophical system developed by Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement ...
.
In 1991 he created at the national exhibition in Kassel, a video installation that confronted the viewer with the objective documentation of
Spacetime
In physics, spacetime is a mathematical model that combines the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional manifold. Spacetime diagrams can be used to visualize relativistic effects, such as why diffe ...
. It was installed on a several tons of stone altar on which stood a steel basin. In this steel basin formed over time crystals from a boiling solution. The entire process has been documented over several weeks by an automatic camera.
The basis of his work, he sees in line with research by
Rupert Sheldrake
Alfred Rupert Sheldrake (born 28 June 1942) is an English author and parapsychology researcher who proposed the concept of morphic resonance, a conjecture which lacks mainstream acceptance and has been criticized as pseudoscience. He has worke ...
and his theory of
Morphic field.
2016 Sperling received the 4th International André Evard Audience Award of the Messmer Foundation. His Award-winning work titled: obj 1586 is the first from the work series, folded realities. In this series, the focus is on the referentiality between the entities. So the colors depending on the angle of the surfaces with respect to the scalar light source. Sperling makes reference to a philosophical approach of the philosopher Nagarjuna.
Exhibitions
* 1983
Gustav-Siegle-Haus /
Stuttgart
* 1986 Frankfurter Kunstverein, ''Das AKTFOTO'' (The nude photo) ideology - aesthetic - history, Museum of the 20th Century Vienna. ''15 years prior to 2000 - the portrayal of violence and brutality is still a priority over the representation of sexuality and eroticism'', Time-critical art action, Frankfurt
* 1990 co-founder of
East Side Gallery November 1989, Berlin, image #18 "The transformation of the pentagram to a peace star in a Europe without walls" 10m x 3,60 m on Berlin Wall
* 1990''The Pleasures within Distance'', Window / Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney,
Australia
* 1991 Hessian National Exhibition /
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2 ...
* 1992 Kunsthalle
Darmstadt
Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...
, Solo Exhibition, Art Prize of the DAG, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Darmstadt
* 1993
Goethe-Institut
The Goethe-Institut (, GI, en, Goethe Institute) is a non-profit German cultural association operational worldwide with 159 institutes, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange an ...
/
Prag,
Tschechien
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The Cz ...
* 1994 Museum Wiesbaden ''Hessiale 94'' /
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
, national art exhibition of the Federal Association of Artists
* 2016 Messmer Foundation, Riegel, Germany
Collections, commissions, public art
* Computer Associates, implementation of the architectural design of the CA firm building in a mural for the entrance hall 1.60mx 3.60m, Acrylic on canvas and design base for the
East Side Galley image on the Berlin Wall in 1990, Germany
* East Side Galley, image #18 ''"The transformation of the pentagram to a peace star in a Europe without walls"'' 10m x 3,60 m on Berlin Wall. 1990, Berlin, Germany
* Museum of Contemporary Art ZKM Karlsruhe, ''"B3"'', 1991, Computer painting on silver photo canvas, 100 x 140 cm · ''"B7"'', 1991, Computer painting on silver photo canvas, 100 x 140 cm, Karlsruhe, Germany
* Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, implementation of the "Cathedral of Siena", acrylic on canvas 2.20mx 90 cm, Frankfurt / Siena - Italy
* Messmer Foundation, Riegel, Germany, Painting: 'job 1586', 55.11"x 55.11" pigments on canvas
Awards
* 1992 Art Prize of the German Salaried Employees Academy
* 2016 Audience Award 4. International André Evard-Award
References
Literature
* Oberbaum: ''East Side Gallery'' Berlin 1991 (catalog) (catalog)
* ''Landeskunstausstellung ´94, National Art Exhibition'',Wiesbaden, Germany, 1994 (catalog)
* Thomas Metzinger: The Artistic Work of Bodo Sperling in: ''transparency of consciousness'', Digital Art Gallery, Frankfurt, 10. 31. 1997 (catalog)
*''Hessiale `94, National Art Exhibition'' Kassel, (catalog)
* Zylvia Auerbach (ed.): ''The Pleasures within distance'',
Sydney, 1990,
* DuMont: ''365 Orte - Eine Reise zu Deutschlands Zukunftsmachern''.
* messmer foundation: ''4. International André Eward - Award for concrete-constructive art''. 02.13.2016 - 04.24.2016 (catalog)
External links
Website Bodo Sperling*
Bodo Sperling in the National Libraries AustraliaBodo Sperling by artfacts.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sperling, Bodo
1952 births
20th-century German painters
20th-century German male artists
German male painters
21st-century German painters
21st-century German male artists
German conceptual artists
Artists from Berlin
Living people