ADOLF LUTHER – THE FASCINATION OF LIGHT
May 10, 2007
Herakleidon Museum in collaboration with the Adolf Luther Foundation in Krefeld, Germany, opened for the first time in Greece, a large retrospective exhibition dedicated to the internationally recognized German artists Adolf Luther (1912-1990).
The exhibition presented about 60 of his works, such as photographic objects, paintings, drawings, photographs, etc. One of Luther’s most famous visual spectacles, “Suspended Lenses” (1976) was presented in the inner courtyard, while the path of the self-taught artist from 1942 was shown until 1990, from his first watercolors to his “walls of light”.
ADOLF LUTHER
Adolf Luther belongs to the radical representatives of the artists who dealt with light in the 60s. For Luther, light was a glorious reality. He postulated the existence of an immaterial, invisible substance of light, which he saw as the opposite pole to the material world. In 1962, he creates the first “photo objects”. These objects consist of glass fragments that trap the light that penetrates the space and let it then escape from the fracture points. Since the mid-60s, the function of visualizing light in space has been taken over by high-quality optical materials such as eyeglass lenses, prisms, concave and convex mirrors. In the 70s – 80s, Luther transferred his artistic vision to architectural constructions. Adolf Luther does not perceive the integration of light in architectural art as a beautification of a disputed architectural reality, but with this integration, aims to make it perfect. Architecture, which its nature is static, needs to be supplemented with an element of movement to keep up with a constantly changing reality. His “Walls of light”, and “Photo Objects|” can be found in many public buildings in Federal Republic of Germany. In 1989, he founds the Adolf Luther Foundation in Krefeld. Given his collection and his own works that he donates to the foundation, he sets as the goal of the foundation the research, development and promotion of this particular art, since the begging of the fifties.