Nationalmusée um Fëschmaart | The Alchemist Catalogue

The Alchemist

Selected

works

by Arthur Unger

Arthur Unger presents 40 works on copper outside his studio in Merl, June 1974.

The Nationalmusée um Fëschmaart has been actively promoting Luxembourgish artists for many years. Through a series of solo shows, the museum aims to increase public engagement with the local art scene and to promote research on the history of art in Luxembourg in collaboration with the Lëtzebuerger Konschtarchiv.

The latest addition to this series is Arthur Unger, a nationally and internationally renowned artist whose impressive career spans over fifty years. From 28 April to 15 October, the Nationalmusée um Fëschmaart will be showing a selection of Unger’s works on copper and paper in an exhibition called The Alchemist – Selected works by Arthur Unger. The show features some forty works, dating from the early 1970s through to the present day.

Arthur Unger has had a long and successful career. In the late 1960s, the artist made his first ink drawings and started to experiment with fire on copper, driven by a profound fascination with the elements. Unger’s sense of adventure and interest in other cultures have led him to travel widely, notably to West and Central Africa, China and Paris. His time in the French capital brought him into contact with well-known personalities of the Parisian art scene of the time, through which the artist garnered international acclaim. Throughout his artistic career, Unger has always remained true to his distinct pictorial language. Whether they take the form of expressive ink drawings on paper or the captivating compositions created on copper, his works stand out by virtue of their extraordinary liveliness.

I hope readers enjoy exploring Arthur Unger’s vivid world of fire and water. My sincere thanks to the artist for sharing his fascinating visual cosmos with us for so many years.

Sam Tanson Minister for Culture

Biography

1960

Congo gains its independence from Belgium and Unger subsequently returns to Luxembourg after travelling around Africa for some time.

1963

Unger and his family move to Paris, where he becomes interested in contemporary art and creates his first artworks.

1967

First solo exhibition at the Palais Dauphine, Paris.

1932

Arthur Unger is born and grows up in the commune of Hesperange, Luxembourg.

1968

Unger and his family move back to Luxembourg. First solo exhibition in Luxembourg at Galerie Beffa and first participation at the annual Salon du Cercle artistique de Luxembourg.

1956

After graduating from secondary school and serving his military time, Unger attends the École Coloniale (‘colonial school’) in Brussels in order to become an agent of the Congolese administration. As a territorial commander, he lives among local tribes (Lunda and Baluba) at the border of the provinces Katanga and Kasai.

1969

The artist happens to notice the reaction of electrolyte copper and fire thanks to a chemist friend. Unger subsequently helps a Luxembourg company in Wiltz to produce electrolyte copper foil, which he then uses as a medium for his art. He starts to develop his technique of painting with fire on copper sheets.

1970

1957

1958

Unger marries Astrid Ehringer.

Unger continues his duties in Jadotville (today Likasi).

1959 His daughter Danielle is born.

1971

Encounter with the influential art critic Michel Tapié at Galerie Stadler, Paris. Their lasting professional relationship and friendship largely shapes Unger’s successful international artistic career. Tapié shows Unger’s work in numerous exhibitions and publishes a range of texts, not least a monograph in 1980.

Unger receives the Grand Duke Adolphe Prize in Luxembourg.

1975-

1977

Unger is one of the six artists of Groupe V (v stands for

1977

voisinages or neighbourhoods). The other artists were Victor Laks (1924-2011), James Pichette (1920-1996), Wanda Davanzo (1919-2017), Roberto Altmann (*1942) and Thibaud Campa.

Unger is invited to California to the studios of artists which the Parisian art world referred to as the School of the Pacific.

Around 1979

Encounter with art historian and curator Ante Glibota, through their mutual acquaintance Tapié. Glibota organises several shows with Unger’s work and publishes

1982

1983-

1988

two monographic publications in 1989 and 2001.

Unger’s wife passes away.

Frequent travels to Africa, including Senegal, Mali and Ivory Coast.

20042008

2017

Trips to China.

The artist receives the Phoenix Art Award in Fenghuang, China.

Arthur Unger at the gorges de Zilo in Katanga (Democratic Republic of the Congo), 1957.

Harmony in opposition

Exploring dualities in Arthur Unger’s oeuvre

By Lis Hausemer

Arthur Unger is a painter of contrasts. His paintings evoke both light and darkness, gesture and restraint. Inspired by Taoist philosophy and the belief in the balancing forces of yin and yang, Unger expresses himself through the opposing elements of fire and water. Fire plays a central role in the vivid compositions the artist creates with ink and acid on electrolytic copper plates. Water, on the other hand, is evident in his masterful ink wash paintings, a practice Unger has engaged in since the very beginning of his artistic career in the early 1960s. The exhibition The Alchemist – Selected works by Arthur Unger presents some forty copper and ink wash paintings that offer a glimpse into the artist’s highly personal approach, both in terms of technique and subject matter. Viewers, thus, find themselves transported into a realm of opposites, a world where fire and water collide, illustrating the complexity of Unger’s artistic vision.

As one might expect, Arthur Unger has been the subject of a great deal of writing over the course of his lengthy career, now spanning almost 50 years. Prominent figures in modern European art history such as Michel Tapié and Ante Glibota were crucial in popularising Unger’s work both in Luxembourg and internationally. Looking at how Unger’s work was received over the years, it becomes apparent that the majority of the literature focuses on the inspiration he drew from the time he spent in Africa, particularly in the former Belgian Congo, Senegal and Mali.1 Given the extensive literature on the subject and the biographical perspective that Jamie Armstrong offers on the artist’s work in this catalogue, the following essay will not summarise or reproduce existing interpretations on Unger’s work. I believe that a contemporary analysis of Arthur Unger’s work should reflect the recent shift in societal attitudes and prompt a nuanced, critical perspective on Western perceptions of non-Western cultures. I consider the following essay less a continuation of the established narrative around Arthur Unger’s oeuvre and the inspiration he drew from African cultures, but rather as a contemporary reading of his oeuvre in the context of the selection of artworks presented in the exhibition The Alchemist – Selected Works by Arthur Unger.

1 See for example: Glibota, Ante. Unger – The African. Paris: Paris Art Center, 1989. Print.

Balancing gestural expression and restraint

The juxtaposition of inside and outside, of expression and self-control, is a common thread that runs through Unger’s oeuvre. He characterises his artistic approach as “a spontaneous gestural expression with, at the same time, a certain restraint”2. This phrase succinctly sums up Unger’s practice. His works represent expressions of the artist’s innermost self, yet are formally executed in a very intentional and considered way. While Unger’s copperplate and ink wash paintings instantly command the viewer’s attention with their extraordinary sense of spontaneity, every brushstroke and touch of colour has been carefully considered by the artist. Paintings such as Où les rocs sont rois (1993) and La saharienne (2000) vividly illustrate this dichotomy between impulsive expression and structure. Although the grid-like compositions in these paintings may initially appear disorganised and haphazard, they have a rhythmic and almost pattern-like structure on closer inspection.

While Unger’s rhythmic paintings may bear a certain aesthetic resemblance to the works of Jackson Pollock, it is important to note that Unger’s artistic approach differs significantly from that of the infamous American expressionist painter.3 In contrast to Pollock, who created his action-based drip paintings by pouring paint directly onto canvas, Unger places a strong focus on structure and strives to maintain a delicate equilibrium between spontaneity and accuracy. As early as 1974, a French art critic, thus, describes Unger’s works as “both an explosion and construction, an antithesis between structure and extreme liberation”4. This highlights the tension between the static and the dynamic that underpins Unger’s artistic practice, setting it apart from the action painting of Pollock and other American expressionist painters.

Painting with fire

Arthur Unger’s mastery of his craft is the result of years of experience, dating back to 1969 when he created his first copper painting. Through tireless trial and error, he has become a modern-day alchemist, transforming thin electrolytic copper plates into evocative paintings that blend geometric and organic structures. Unger’s unique technique involving the use of fire on copper sets him apart from his contemporaries. While experiments with fire in art are not a new phenomenon, several modern artists have garnered attention for their use of fire.

2 C.P. Une visite chez Arthur Unger. Le Républicain Lorrain, 19 June 1974, Print.

3 Arrabal, Fernando, Unger, Arthur and Glibota, Ante. Beauté inversée = Reversed beauty. Luxembourg: European Communication Agency, 1999, Print, p. 20.

4 Le Républicain Lorrain, 1974.

Unger using fire to create his so-called pyrochemograms, January 2023.

Yassou the dog, 2014 Pyrochemogram on copper 26 cm diameter

Collection Arthur Unger

Psychogramme (Dessus – Dessous), 1980

Ink on paper

39 x 28 cm (triptych)

Collection Arthur Unger

Colophon

Copyright

© 2023 Musée national d’archéologie, d’histoire et d’art (MNAHA)

Editor / Éditeur

Musée national d’archéologie, d’histoire et d’art (MNAHA)

Curators / Commissaires

Lis Hausemer

Ruud Priem

Texts / Textes

Jamie Armstrong

Juliette Evezard

Lis Hausemer

Coordination

Lis Hausemer

Translations and proofreading / Traductions et relecture

Sonia Da Silva

Sandra Litzinger

Katja Taylor

Design and layout / Conception graphique et mise en page A Designers' Collective & Monogram

Print / Impression

Reka Print, Luxembourg

Edition / Tirage 800

ISBN 978-2-87985-833-3

Publications du Musée national d’archéologie, d’histoire et d’art Luxembourg, 1

This book was published as part of the exhibition The Alchemist – Selected works by Arthur Unger

28 April 2023 – 15 October 2023 at the Nationalmusée um Fëschmaart

Ce livre a été publié à l’occasion de l’exposition L’alchimiste – Sélection d’œuvres d’Arthur Unger

28 avril 2023 – 15 octobre 2023 au Nationalmusée um Fëschmaart

Photo credits / Crédits photographiques

Éric Chenal

p. 12; p. 33; p. 39; p. 117

Jean Weyrich

p. 8; p. 11

MNAHA / Tom Lucas

pp. 2-3; p. 19; p. 20; p. 31; p. 34; p. 41; p. 46; p. 51; p. 53; p. 55; p. 60; pp. 62-115

Cover image / Image de couverture

Espace de génies (detail), 1997 Pyrochemogram on copper

54 x 108 cm

Collection Arthur Unger (Photo : MNAHA / Tom Lucas)

p. 55 © 2023 Mediahuis Luxembourg S.A. – Luxemburger Wort – 24.02.1981 – Tous droits réservés – Des licences d’utilisation de droits d’auteur peuvent être obtenues à travers www.luxorr.lu

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Les détenteurs des copyrights ont été recherchés avec grand soin de notre part. N’hésitez pas à contacter le MNAHA en cas de droit d’image non considéré. Toute demande dûment justifiée sera prise en compte selon les modalités en vigueurs.