Micha Ullman

{{short description|Israeli sculptor and professor of art (born 1939)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Micha Ullman

| native_name = מיכה אולמן

| native_name_lang = he

| image = Ulmann1.jpg

| caption = Micha Ullman in 2006

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1939|10|11|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine

| nationality = Israeli

| occupation = {{hlist| Sculptor | Professor of art }}

| known_for = {{hlist| "Empty Library" memorial in Berlin | Underground and void-themed sculptures }}

}}

Micha Ullman ({{langx|he|מיכה אולמן}}; born 11 October 1939) is an Israeli sculptor and professor of art.

Biography

Ullman was born in Tel Aviv to German Jews who immigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1933.Michal Lando. [http://www.forward.com/articles/105034/ Art that hints at big questions,] The Forward. April 22, 2009 As a teenager, he attended the Kfar HaYarok agricultural school.[http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArtStEngPE.jhtml?itemNo=1117337&contrassID=2&subContrassID=15&title=%27The%20accidental%20sculptor%27&dyn_server=172.20.5.5 The Accidental Sculptor], Haaretz

In 1960-1964, he studied at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. In 1965, he attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, where he learned etching.

Ullman is married to Mira, and lives in Ramat Hasharon, Israel.

Academic career

He taught at Bezalel Academy in 1970 - 1978. He became a visiting professor at Academy of Arts Düsseldorf in 1976. He taught at the University of Haifa from 1979 - 1989. He was appointed Professor of Sculpture at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart from 1991 to 2005.Galerie Cora Hölzl. [http://www.galerie-cora-hoelzl.de/artists/ullman.htm Micha Ullman,] Retrieved 13 May 2009.

Artistic career

File:Micha Ullman2.JPG, Micha Ullman]]

Ullman created the underground “Empty Library” memorial on Bebelplatz square in Berlin, where the Nazi book burnings began in 1933. The memorial consists of a window on the surface of the plaza, under which vacant bookshelves are lit and visible. A bronze plaque bears a quote by Heinrich Heine: “Where books are burned in the end people will burn.”Edward Rothstein. [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/arts/design/02conn.html?_r In Berlin, Teaching Germany’s Jewish History,] The New York Times, May 1, 2009 This memorial was inaugurated in May 1995.Jennifer A. Jordan. [https://books.google.com/books?id=mSIm7rWpdRIC Structures of memory: understanding urban change in Berlin and beyond,] Stanford University Press, 2006. P. 103. {{ISBN|0-8047-5277-X}} (see book burning). Ullman explains: "It begins with the void that exists in every pit and will not disappear. You could say that emptiness is a state, a situation formed by the sides of the pit: The deeper it is, the more sky there will be and the greater the void. In the library containing the missing books, that void is more palpable. We expect [the books] but they are not there."

In 1997, Ullman completed a synagogue memorial in collaboration with Zvi Hecker and Eyal Weizmann, commemorating the former Lindenstraße synagogue in Kreuzberg.Jordan, p. 149

Another of his creations is "Hochwasser" ("Flooding") on a small island near the Werra River in Germany. It was inspired by a boat Ullman saw there with a sign on it stating it had a capacity of up to seven passengers. Ullman's father, Yitzhak, who had lived nearby, immigrated to Palestine with his seven siblings in 1933.

Ullman is represented in the art collection of the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart with the representative fourpart work ″Du″, created in 1992 and shown at Documenta 9, which was given to the Academy as a permanent loan in 1993 by the Ministry of Science and Art Baden-Württemberg at the suggestion of the former Rector and head of the collection, Wolfgang Kermer.Gabriele Merkes (Ed.): Die Sammlung der Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart: Katalog der Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart. Stuttgart: Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart, 2000, {{ISBN|978-3-931485-41-2}}, pp. 100–101, 157–158, reprod. p. 101; see also German Wikipedia

Sculptural style

Ullman creates subterranean sculptures, some of which barely protrude from the ground. They touch on universal themes such as the meaning of place and home, absence and emptiness. They have been described as simultaneously "celestial and earthbound, metaphysical but sensual and tactile.

Gallery

File:Marl Ullmann 01.JPG|Ground, 1987
Marl, Germany

File:Micha Ullman.JPG|Havdalah, 1988
iron and gravel
Tefen Open Museum, Israel

File:A Chair ullman.JPG|A Chair, 1989
stone
Tel Aviv University, Israel

File:Yesod 1989.jpg|Yesod, 1989
concrete and sand
Rothschild Boulevard, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel

File:B94 0743~Micha Ullmann-Midnight.jpg|Day, Havdalah, Midnight, 1993
Steel plates and sand
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem Collection

File:Buecherverbrennung Denkmal Bebelplatz Berlin.jpg|"The Empty Library" - a Memorial for the Nazi book burning, 1995
Bebelplatz, Berlin, Germany

File:Lola Beer Ebner Sculpture Garden 018.jpg|Window, 1999
Concrete, iron and glass
Tel Aviv Museum of Art

File:Pillar by Micha Ullman.JPG|Pillar, 1995
Iron

File:Equinox 001.jpg|Equinox, 2005-9
Concrete and glass
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem Collection

Education

Teaching

Awards

Ullman was awarded the Israel Prize for sculpture in April 2009.{{Cite web

| title = Israel Prize Official Site (in Hebrew) - Recipient's C.V.

| url =

http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/PrashTashsath/MichaUlman/CvMichaUlman.htm}}{{Cite web

| title = Israel Prize Official Site (in Hebrew) - Judges' Rationale for Grant to Recipient

| url = http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/PrashTashsath/MichaUlman/NsMichaUlman.htm}}

Awards and Prizes

Outdoor and Public Art

  • 1983 Sky, limestone, Tel Hai, Israel
  • 1984 Ben Hinnom Valley, iron and cable, Jerusalem
  • 1984 Lot's Wife, earth, Mt. Sodom, Israel
  • 1989 Jesod (Foundation), cement and sand, Rothschild Boulevard, Tel Aviv
  • 1991 Schodnia (East), asphalt, Lodz, Poland
  • 1992 Sea Level, cast iron, sandstone and glass, 22 Allenby St., Tel Aviv
  • 1992 Niemand, corten steel and red loam, Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany
  • 1995 The Empty Library, cement and glass, Bebelplatz, Berlin, Germany
  • 1996-1997 Water, Zion Square, West Jerusalem and Freres Street, East Jerusalem

See also

References

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