Creativity has something to do with conscious modifications, with an engagement to the present. And in order to maintain the allure of the nudes to future generations, they have to be enduring. A painting or a sculpture is finished when the artists signs it and resigns from altering it for good – this is he idea at any rate. Thereafter the work should be unaltered and, if possible, everlasting. This ideal eternity antagonizes nature, which is forever in motion and constantly transforming itself. The artists of the Renaissance saw themselves as students of nature. But, in those days, it was required that a student would one day best his master teacher. The euphoria of everlasting advancement was that every future generation should outdo the former and thereby continually learn how to control nature. Being better than nature, and ultimately making her a subject, is also a biblical belief. Paired with the age-old dream of the fountain of youth, this leads to fatal results, which are ever-present all around us. The artist Nils-Udo has exceedingly discarded these artistic concepts, most likely because he occasionally moved an enriching distance away from our occidental civilization. His work embodies the humility and in comparison to the fundamentals of life. The art historian Dieter Ronte once said, “ The artistic fantasy envisions nature. It doesn’t destroy like when man intervenes with nature.” Nils Udo rises to nature in that he accepts its laws of transience and change. In 1972 he gave up painting, which he had practicing in Paris for a decade, and began renting land from farmers in order to carry out his plantations and excavations. With the borrowed natural materials he created nests, curtains and rafts, purely to photograph them as evidence of their ephemeral existence. This second step of photographing his creations, bestows his works with a permanence. However, this conservation also includes the alterations of nature. This apparent paradox is, upon closer inspection, a natural law. The eternalness doesn’t lie in the unalterable, but in the constant renewal. Nils Udo’s photography is not purely documentary, but more so a creation of its own reality. It abstracts, it reduces temperature, aesthetic, time, space and the tactile to the two-dimensional. It compacts the elusive natural creation and concentrates on it, unleashing itself in the eye of the viewer: “The sensation is omnipresent.”
| 1937 | born in Lauf (Bavaria) |
| 1960 | Moved to Paris after numerous trips through Europe, Morocco, the Mid-East and a one year residence in Iran |
| 1970 | Moved to Northern Bavaria after ten years in Paris as a freelance painter |
| 1972 | Decided to give up painting and begin his nature works; rented large pieces of land on which he developed his first earth projects planted with trees and bushes which have since then been created in numerous countries |
| 1980 | Parallel to his nature projects, he began to create permanent citywide projects |
| Lives and works in Riedering | |
| 1998 | 1st prize at the International Tirennial of Photography, Fribourg, Switzerland |
| 1985 | 1st prize at the International competition, Parc d’Éole in Brest |
Solo Exhibitions (Selection)
| 2005 | Solo Exhibit, Turin, Munich and Paris-Malakoff |
| 2004 | Solo Exhibit, Museé de Châteauroux, France; Ile de La Réunion, Indian Ocean, in Cavalaire sur Mer, France and in Strasbourg |
| 2003 | Solo Exhibit, Fürth, Paris, Borgo, Italy, Galway Arts Festival, Ireland, Ville de Grand Quevilly, France, Clermont-Ferrand, France. |
| 2002 | Solo Exhibit and Installation in Gunma Museum of Art in Tatebayashi, Japan, in Iwate Museum of Art in Morioka, Japan, and in Hokkaido Obihiro Museum of Art, Japan |
| Solo Exhibit, Wasserburg am Inn and Tokyo | |
| 2001 | Solo Exhibit, Paris, Lanzarote, in Turin and Toronto |
| 2000 | Solo Exhibit, Bayreuth, Rosenheim, Bergamo, Colmar, Geneva, Paris, Strasbourg, Séléstat and Munic |
| 1999 | Solo Exhibit, Ludwig Forum Aachen, in Turin, Brussels, Reims, Berlin, Toronto und Tokyo |
| 1998 | Solo Exhibit, Toulon, Toronto, Waldkraiburg and Geneva |
| 1995 | Solo Exhibit, Paris, Tokyo and Bombay |
| 1994 | Solo Exhibit, Budapest, Lille and Anzin |
| 1993 | Solo Exhibit, Poznan, Poland |
| 1991 | Solo Exhibit, Munich, Tokyo, Angers and Evry |
| 1989 | Solo Exhibit, Reims, Munich and Tokyo |
| 1987 | Solo Exhibit, Tokyo and Coimbra |
| 1986 | Solo Exhibit, Montpellier, Salzburg, Montbéliard and Tokyo |
| 1985 | Solo Exhibit, Rennes, Paris and Tokyo |
| 1984 | Solo Exhibit, Lyon |
| 2006 | Retrospective of Photographic Images und Painting, Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid |
| 2004 | Exhibit, ECO-PHOTO Long Island, USA |
| 1998 | Exhibit, Art and Nature in Malibu, California |
| Exhibit, Affinities and Collections in Escondido, California | |
| 1996 | Exhibit, Odense, Denmark and Toronto |
Books/Catalogs (Selection)
Floris M. Neusüss, Photography as Art – Art as Photography 2, Kassel 1977
Heinz Thiel/Andreas Vowinckel, Zwei Steine sind nie gleich, Galerie Falazik, Neuenkirchen 1978
A fotografia como arte – a arte como fotografia, Centro de arte contemporânea, Porto 1979
Nils-Udo, Sonnenskulptur, Holz + Kunst, II. Freiburger Symposium, hrsg. v. Kunstverein Freiburg, 1979
Münchner Künstler in Münchner Galerien, Kulturreferat der Stadt München, 1980
III. Internationale Triennale der Photographie, Fribourg 1981 Tilman Osterwold/Andreas Vowinckel, Natur – Skulptur, hrsg. v. Württembergischen Kunstverein, Stuttgart 1981
Skulptur – Architektur – Natur, hrsg. von der Städtischen Galerie Nordhorn, 1982
2. Internationales Bildhauer-Symposion Bentheimer Sandstein, Nordhorn 1982
Katalog Symposium Nordseeküste, Cuxhaven 1982
Eckhard Schneider, Positionen, hrsg. von der Städtischen Galerie Nordhorn, 1983
Hubert Besaçier, Musée St. Pierre Art contemporain, Lyon 1984
Monique Faux/Jean-Blaise Picheral, L’art et la ville, Paris 1986
Delphine Renard, Nils-Udo à Équevilley, Nils-Udo Récoltes, 21 jours à Équevilley, Centre d’Art Contemporain de Montbéliard, 1986
Régis Durand, Deux saisons, Vassivière en Limousin 1987
Tasaku Kaneko, Begegnung mit Nils-Udo, Kaneko Art Gallery, Tokyo 1987
Fotografische Bilder, hrsg. von der Städt. Galerie Nordhorn und dem Mannheimer Kunstverein 1987/1988
La Nature de l’Art, La Villette/Paris 1988
Nils-Udo, La Réunion à Paris, Inventer 89, Vaisseau de Pierres, La Villette/Paris 1988
Régis Durand, Le regard pensif, Paris 1988
Wolfgang Hartmann/Werner Pokorny, Das Bildhauersymposion, Stuttgart 1988
Vittorio Fagone, In loco; Helmut Lesch, Nils-Udo und sein Marienhof-Brunnen, München 1989
Roselyne Von-Pine, Un artiste une île, Galerie Vincent, Île de la Réunion 1990
L’art renouvelle la ville, L’art contemporain et urbanisme en France, Paris/Tokyo 1990
Material und Raum, Uwe Rüth, Galerie Heimeshoff, Essen 1990/1991
Hubert Besaçier, Bäume; Vera Botterbusch, Der Grenzgänger Nils-Udo, München 1991
Michel Draguet, Dieter Ronte, Raymond-Marie Balau, in: Variations entre la feuille et l’arbre, in: L’art renouvelle la ville, in: Ausst.-Kat. Urbanisme et art contemporain, Musée National des Monuments Français, Paris 1992
Alain Sayag, in: Ausst.-Kat. Arrêt sur viaduc, hrsg. von EPAD, La Défense, Paris 1993
Liliane Albertazzi, Ausst.-Kat. Différentes Natures, Visions de l’Art Contemporain, La Défense, Paris 1993
Colette Garraud, L’idée de nature dans l’art contemporain, Flammarion, Paris 1993
Art Grandeur Nature II, Parc de la Courneuve, hrsg. v. Conseil Général, St. Denis, Paris 1994
John K. Grande, Balance: Art and Nature, Montréal/New York/London 1994
Francisco Asensio Cerver, Landscape Art, world of environmental design, Francisco Asensio Cerver, Barcelona, Spanien 1995
Régis Durand, Le maïs, Nils-Udo – Laàs 1994, Bordeaux 1995
Cahiers intempestifs, Nr. 5, Saint-Etienne 1995
Barbara Nemitz (Hrsg.), Ausst.-Kat. Wachsen, Arbeit an den Künstlergärten Weimar, Nr.2, Herbst 1996
Trilogi, Kunst – Natur – Videnskab, Kunsthallen Brandts Klaedefabrik, Odense 1996
Vittorio Fagone, Art in Nature, Mailand 1996
Nils-Udo, Nature–Corps, Lille 1996
Georg Lechner, Nils-Udo, New Delhi 1994, hrsg. von Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi und demGoethe-Institut München, New Delhi 1997
Francisco Asensio Cerver, Interventions in Landscape, in: International Landscape Architecture, Barcelona, Spain 1997
Philippe Piguet, Nils-Udo, A fleur de vie, in: Ausst.-Kat. Nils-Udo, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Genève 1998
Cahiers intempestifs, Nr. 10, St. Etienne 1998
Nils-Udo, La Belle Au Bois Dormant, in: Parfums de Sculpture, Materia Prima , Pau1999
Monique Faux, Tadayasu Sakai, Nils-Udo, Parc d’Eole Brest ‘89, in: L’Art renouvelle la ville, Tokyo 1999
Barbara Nemitz (Hrsg.), Lebende Vegetation in der zeitgenössischen Kunst, Weimar 1999
NILS - UDO Kunst mit Natur, Essays von Wolfgang Becker, Régis Durand, Vittorio Fagone und John K. Grande, Hrsg. Wolfgang Becker, Wienand Verlag Köln 1999
NILS - UDO De l’art avec la nature, Essays von Wolfgang Becker, Régis Durand, Vittorio Fagone und John K. Grande, Hrsg. Wolfgang Becker, Wienand Verlag Köln 1999
NILS - UDO Art in Nature, Essays von Wolfgang Becker, Régis Durand, Vittorio Fagone und John K. Grande, Hrsg. Wolfgang Becker, Wienand Verlag Köln 2000
Nils-Udo, Wolfgang Becker, Vittorio Fagone, Arte nella natura (1972-1999), Supplemento al catalogo internazionale, Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo 2000
Auf den Spuren der Wirklichkeit, Vorwort Heike Strelow, Ausst. Katalog, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Genève 2000
Quaderns, Nr. 225, hrsg. Col-legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya, Barcelona 2000
Barbara Nemitz, trans plant, Living Vegetation in Contemporary Art, Hatje Cantz Verlag, Deutschland 2000
Nature, Art, Paysage, Gilles A. Tiberghien, Actes sud / École Nationale Supérieure du Paysage / Centre du Paysage, 2001
Sabine Bartelsheim, Pflanzenkunstwerke, Lebende Pflanzen in der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts, Verlag Silke Schreiber 2001
Große Kunstausstellung Arbeitskreis 68, Galerie im Ganserhaus, Wasserburg am Inn, 2002
NILS-UDO Towards Nature, Essays von Wolfgang Becker, Kazunari Sasaki, Yuri Matsushita, Cultural Affairs Departement of Kyodo News, Tokyo, Gunma Museum of Art, Tatebayashi, Obihiro Museum of Art, Hokkaido, Iwate Museum of Art, Morioka Japan 2002
Sigrid Wollmeier, Natur-Kunst, Künstlersymposien in Deutschland, Michael Imhof Verlag 2002
Phyllis Richardson, Contemporary Natural, Thames & Hudson, London 2002NILS-UDO Art in Nature, Essay von Hubert Besacier, Editions Flammarion, Paris 2002
NILS-UDO L’art dans la Nature, Essay von Hubert Besacier, Editions Flammarion, Paris 2002
Katalog Internationaler Workshop Landschaftspark Bärwalder See Uhyst 2003
NILS-UDO Nester, Kunst Galerie Fürth, Editions Cercle d’Art Paris 2003
NILS-UDO Nids, Editions Cercle d’Art Paris 2003
FOTOFEST H2004, Celebrating Water, Tenth International Biennal of Photography and Photo-Related Art, Houston, USA 2004
Cahiers intempestifs, Edition Nummer 16, 2004
Ökologische Ästhetik, Theorie und Praxis künstlerischer Umweltgestaltung, Heike Strelow, Birkhäuser Verlag für Architektur, Schweiz, 2004
John K. Grande, Art Nature Dialogues, Interviews with environmental Artists, State University of New York, USA 2004
NILS-UDO Peintures 1989 – 1991, Tarabuste, Frankreich 2005
NILS-UDO NaturKunstNatur, Essay von Hubert Besacier, Editions Flammarion, Paris, Prestel Verlag München 2005
Additional Information
| 2005 | Completed “Clemson Clay Nest” for the South Carolina Botanical Garden, University of Clemson, USA |
| Installation “Paysage avec Cascade”, Paris-Malakoff | |
| Completed “Das Nest (The Nest)” for the national garden show, Munich | |
| 2004 | Completed the installation “Landscape with waterfall” for the Photo Festival, Houston, USA |
| Planned installation for the glass manufacturer Harzkristall, Germany | |
| Created the permanent installation ”Gesang der Geister über den Wassern (The Song of the Ghosts About Water)” Wilhelmsdorf bei Ravensburg | |
| TAKAMAKA Project, series of works on the Ile de La Réunion, Indian Ocean | |
| Created the DVD Film „La Mer“ | |
| 2003 | Installation “Ivry-Habitat”, Hospital Park, Charles Foix, Ivry-Paris |
| Series of installations in the Connemara region for the Galway Arts Festival, Ireland | |
| Created a permanent installation for the Bavarian Police Administration Office in Straubing, Germany | |
| Created the permanent installation “Pre-Cambrian Sanctuary” neat Mont Tremblant for the Centre dÁrt contemporain du Québec, Montreal, Canada | |
| Blueprints of landscape projects for the international workshop, Bärwalder See near Cottbus, Germany | |
| 2002 | Installation inNeanderthal and permanent installation “Entrée” for the Moncton University, Canada |
| Series of works in Lanzarote for the Art-Nature-project, Fundaçion César Manrique | |
| 2001 | Installation „Ligne des bambous“, Ile de la Réunion, Indian Ocean |
| Permanent installation “Stein-Zeit-Mensch (Stone between mankind)”, Waldskulpturenweg Wittgenstein-Sauerland, Bad Berleburg | |
| Permanent installation “Bois bleu” in Maglione, Piemont, Italy and for the city of Geneva, Switzerland | |
| Installation“Bamboo Valley”, St. Catharines, Canada | |
| 2000 | Installations in the Namibian desert, for Guerlain, Paris |
| Installation “Habitat“ in the Champs Elysées garden, and “Gazon vole!” in Musée Zadkine, Paris | |
| Created two large scanachromes for Bayreuth University | |
| Installation “La Belle au bois dormant”in Jardin des Plantes, Paris | |
| 1998 | Installation “Red Rock Nest”, Red Rock Canyon near Los Angeles, California |
| Permanent installation “Novalis-Hain“ for Augsburg University | |
| 1997 | Created the permanent project “Naturarchitekturskulptur (Natural Architectural Sculpture)” in Troisdorf near Cologne |
| 1996 | Concept EXPO 2000 project in Hannover |
| Created a permanent Lanscape Sculpture and Planting in Salzburg | |
| Works for the Peter Gabriel music video “Across the River” for the worldwide WWF – campaign, The Living Planet, Vancouver Island | |
| 1995 | Installations in Nature in England for die CD-ROM “EVE” by Peter Gabriel |
| Installation “Root-Sculpture” and Solo Exhibit in Mexico City | |
| Created the project“Die Blaue Blume (The Blue Flowers)” in Glonn near Munich | |
| 1994 | Installations in a public parking lot, New Delhi |
| Installation“Mais” in Làas near Pau, France and on Rügen | |
| Works on the subject of Human Nature with students from Universite Valenciennes, Lille | |
| Installations in Parc de la Courneuve, Paris Saint Denis | |
| „Entrée de Ville“, project proposal for the city of Évry | |
| Installations in Natur, Fujino, Japan | |
| 1993 | Installations in Paris and Brussels „Landschaft mit Wasserfall (Lanscape with Waterfall)” |
| Installationen in Wageningen, Holland, “ Landschaft mit See (Sumpf) (Landscape with Lake, Marsh)” near Cottbus and permanent installation “La Vallée de Fleur Bleue” in Lagrézette Park, France | |
| 1992 | Installation Planting for Grande Arche, La Défense, Paris |
| Installation “Hain-Romantische Landschaft (Romantic Grove Landscape)” for the Ludwig Forum, Aachen | |
| 1991 | Installations in Central Park, New York, Installations on Martinique, Caribbean |
| 1990 | Installation planting “Erlkönig (Prototype)”near Caen, France. |
| Installations on the Ile de La Réunion in the Indian Ocean, Bourse Ministère de la Culture, Paris | |
| 1989 | Mahnmal “Bäume (Trees)” in Gasteig Cultural Center, Munich |
| 1988 | Installations „Lavendelnest (Lavender Nest)” near Vaison-la-Romaine in the Provence, „Croix“ in Parc de la Villette, Paris and “Bamboo-Nest“ in Fujino, Japan |
| 1987 | Installations “To Hiroshige” in Takashimaya shopping center Tokyo and “Bamboo House” in Coimbra, Portugal |
| Works in Tel Hai, Israel. Solo Exhibit in Tokyo and in Coimbra | |
| 1986 | Works in Vassivière en Limousin, on Sylt and in Strasbourg |
| 1984 | Installation „La forêt volante“, Lyon |
| 1982 | Installations “Wasser-Haus (Water House)”, “Nordsee (North Sea)”, “Steinturm (Stone Tower)”, Nordhorn, “Großer Wasser-Altar (Large Water Altar),Pommersfelden Park |
| 1978 | “Das Nest (The Nest)”, Lüneburger Heide |
| 1973 | Installation-Planting “Hommage à Gustav Mahler“, Chiemgau, Northern Bavaria |
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