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Nic Hess Art

b. 1968

Nic Hess, born in1968 in Zurich, where he also lives and works, studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and the University of the Arts, Berlin. He got mainly known for his expansive installations and wall collages made of tapes and foils. With these, he deconstructed signs (logos) and symbols from the worlds of business and art history. Alfa Romeo and Juventus is a work for which he transferred his earlier ideas of playing with and deconstructing logos and symbols to a lightbox. We see and recognize several elements, depending on our knowledge of the world of the economic brands as well as of other fields. As has become clear, we recognize a lot of different elements. However, it is not Nic Hess’s intention to animate us to an interpretation of an allegedly readable narration. On the contrary, he is deconstructing the idea of such a total understanding. And the symbols and signs, logos, and images, that we do or do not recognize, are rather reduced to their esthetic value as elements of a composition as a whole. We can either just enjoy the fun of deciphering (and not understanding) such a composition. We can also, on the other side, understand this playing around with signs and symbols as a criticism of the inundation with signs that we are experiencing in our everyday life. Technically, Hess has executed this work with overhead transparencies and adhesive foils. These are directly collaged on the semi-transparent white surface within the lightbox. Hess is used to these materials because he is employing them in his large-scale installations. Hess looks back to a long career and a very large number of institutional solo-shows.

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Artist: Nic Hess
"Der Moment", collage, architecture, Playboy, Rene Magritte, contemporary
By Nic Hess
Located in Cologne, DE
Nic Hess (*1968 in Zurich, where he also lives and works) studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and at the University of the Arts, Berlin. He got mainly known for his expansive installations and wall collages made of tapes and foils. With these, he deconstructed signs (logos) and symbols from the worlds of business and art history. “Der Moment” is a work for which he transferred his earlier ideas of playing with and deconstructing logos and symbols to a framed piece. It is showing exactly the moment (“Der moment”) in which the iconic lumberjack from the painting by Ferdinand Hodler, who is known to more or less every Swiss grown-up person due to the fact that he has been shown on the SFR 50-banknote for 67 years, is reaching out with his ax to the highest point in order to hit down with the utmost force against the tree to be cut down. Rarely has there been a stronger symbol in a painting for a nation’s strength. However, instead of reinforcing this symbolic value, Nic Hess plays with it. He prolongs the vertical line of the ax and connects it to a dolphin, a dolphin that seems to swing in the center of the collage. The lumberjack is positioned on a rather unstable ground that is extended, on the left side, into a penguin. And the penguin’s beak is connected to the tip of the Hokusai-wave (this being an artwork often cited in Hess’ œuvre). Below the penguin we see René Magritte’s famous pipe, as a counterweight to the penguin and it’s energy that is pointing upwards. On the right side of the image, we see a Playboy-bunny siting on top of a Swiss-autobahn-sign that is prolonging an architecture (probably Venice) that has been turned to the left by 90°. The lower right corner is dedicated to the KFC-face of Colonel Sanders, the founder of the company. There are more details to recognize and interpret, theoretically. However, it is not Nic Hess’ intention to animate us to an interpretation of an allegedly readable narration. On the contrary: he is deconstructing the idea of such a total understanding. And the symbols and signs, logos, and well-known artworks, that we do or do not recognize, are rather reduced to their esthetic value: an energy pointing up or down, a weight to be set, a dynamic line defining a pictorial space etc. We can either just enjoy the fun of deciphering (and not understanding) such a composition. We can also – on the other side – understand this playing around with signs and symbols as a criticism of the inundation with signs that we are experiencing in our everyday life. Technically, Hess has executed this work with overhead transparencies. These are directly collaged on the surface of a white cardboard. He is used to this material, because he is employing it in his large-scale installations, in order to create – with the help of projections – the forms that are taped down on the walls. Hess' had this collage of overhead transparencies framed in a bi-color frame. By doing so, we experience rather an object than just an image. Hess looks back to a long career and to a very large number of institutional solo-shows of which here just a few are mentioned: Zulieferer unter Druck, Städtische Galerie, Wolfsburg (2016); Der Stoff aus dem die Träume waren, Kunsthalle Münster, Münster (2015); Ein Titel muss her!, Kunststation Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg (2013); The Birds (for Lilou), Swiss Institute, New York (2012); Silberpfeil, Mercedes Benz Museum, Stuttgart (2011); Automatic Crash Response, Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2009); Escape, Schloß Ringenberg, Hamminkeln (2009); Sculptures, The Project, New York (2008); Food4Less, Museo de Zapopan, Zapopan (2007); Walls/Muri (with Federico Herrero...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Nic Hess Art

Materials

Mixed Media

"Alfa Romeo & Juventus", light box, advertising, deconstruction, nike, furniture
By Nic Hess
Located in Cologne, DE
Nic Hess (*1968 in Zurich, where he also lives and works) studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and at the University of the Arts, Berlin. He got mainly known for his expansive installations and wall collages made of tapes and foils. With these, he deconstructed signs (logos) and symbols from the worlds of business and art history. “Alfa Romeo and Juventus” is a work for which he transferred his earlier ideas of playing with and deconstructing logos and symbols to a light box. We see and recognize several elements, depending on our knowledge of the world of the economic brands as well as of other fields. For instance, the panther to the left side of the piece is probably rather a fantasy figure and does not represent anything but itself (and power and possible violence). Just to the right of this panther we see an image of the famous Swiss mountain Matterhorn. However, since it has been turned 90° to the left, it forms a diamond together with the partly shown “car freshner tree”. Again, a little bit to the right we see a cowboy boot, that can be considered a symbol for the tough wild West in the US. This boot is connected with what seems to be an image of the Chrysler Building’s top, turned 90° to the right. However, if we look closer, we recognize that Hess was tricking us: what seems to be the Chrysler Building in fact is a repetitive image of an airplane cockpit, seen from above. While the nose of the smallest airplane is touching the tip of the pennant of the Italian soccer...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Nic Hess Art

Materials

Foil

"Frightened Girl", Collage, Roy Liechtenstein, Pop Art, Cubism, Contemporary
By Nic Hess
Located in Cologne, DE
Nic Hess (*1968 in Zurich, where he also lives and works) studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and at the University of the Arts, Berlin. He got mainly known for his expansive installations and wall collages made of tapes and foils. With these, he deconstructed signs (logos) and symbols from the worlds of business and art history. Now, however, he resorts to his own sign-system, signs that stem from his biography or his personal environment. In particular, for his collages, that he was doing in the last years, he was using hundreds of art and architecture books that he had found in his late father’s library. Like many people in a similar situation, Hess asked himself what he was to do with the books. And he decided to make productive use of them and for his own work. By transforming the books of the library into his own art he created a sort of memorial to his father. Because with the reproductions of some of the illustrated books he made collages, playful new compositions based on the works of artists like – amongst others – Edward Hopper or Roy Liechtenstein. For his own "Frightened Girl" Hess made use of girls of Roy Liechtenstein-paintings. He cut and re-connected them, creating a kind of cubist version of the original. The result, that even made use of the caption in a Liechtenstein-monograph, was carefully put in a frame chosen by the artist. Hess looks back to a long career and to a very large number of institutional solo-shows of which here just a few are mentioned: Zulieferer unter Druck, Städtische Galerie, Wolfsburg (2016); Der Stoff aus dem die Träume waren, Kunsthalle Münster, Münster (2015); Ein Titel muss her!, Kunststation Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg (2013); The Birds (for Lilou), Swiss Institute, New York (2012); Silberpfeil, Mercedes Benz Museum, Stuttgart (2011); Automatic Crash Response, Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2009...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Nic Hess Art

Materials

Paper

"Uhu Schuhu", collage with cut-outs from Magritte reproductions, appropriation
By Nic Hess
Located in Cologne, DE
Nic Hess (*1968 in Zurich, where he also lives and works) studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and at the University of the Arts, Berlin. He got mainly known for his expansive installations and wall collages made of tapes and foils. With these, he deconstructed signs (logos) and symbols from the worlds of business and art history. Now, however, he resorts to his own sign-system, signs that stem from his biography or his personal environment. In particular, for his collages, that he was doing in the last years, he was using hundreds of art and architecture books that he had found in his late father’s library. Like many people in a similar situation, Hess asked himself what he was to do with the books. And he decided to make productive use of them and for his own work. By transforming the books of the library into his own art he created a sort of memorial to his father. Because with the reproductions of some of the illustrated books he made collages, playful new compositions based on the works of mainly three artists: the Swiss Max Bill, the American Edward Hopper and the Belgian René Magritte – all being his father's heroes. "Uhu Schuhu" has been collaged with reproductions stemming from illustrations of paintings by René Magritte. It is a neo-surrealist work that Hess – with a tongue in cheek – loaded with humor. Hess looks back to a long career and to a very large number of institutional solo-shows of which here just a few are mentioned: Zulieferer unter Druck, Städtische Galerie, Wolfsburg (2016); Der Stoff aus dem die Träume waren, Kunsthalle Münster, Münster (2015); Ein Titel muss her!, Kunststation Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg (2013); The Birds (for Lilou), Swiss Institute, New York (2012); Silberpfeil, Mercedes Benz Museum, Stuttgart (2011); Automatic Crash Response, Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2009); Escape, Schloß Ringenberg, Hamminkeln (2009); Sculptures, The Project, New York (2008); Food4Less, Museo de Zapopan, Zapopan (2007); Walls/Muri (with Federico Herrero...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Nic Hess Art

Materials

Paper

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Previously Available Items
Le Monde du Corbusier / Collage, architecture, Switzerland, brutalism, portrait
By Nic Hess
Located in Cologne, DE
Nic Hess (*1968 in Zurich, where he also lives and works) studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam and at the University of the Arts, Berlin. He got mainly known for his expansive installations and wall collages made of tapes and foils. With these, he deconstructed signs (logos) and symbols from the worlds of business and art history. Now, however, he resorts to his own sign-system, signs that stem from his biography or his personal environment. In particular, for his collages, that he was doing in the last years, he was using hundreds of art and architecture books that he had found in his late father’s library. Like many people in a similar situation, Hess asked himself what he was to do with the books. And he decided to make productive use of them and for his own work. By transforming the books of the library into his own art he created a sort of memorial to his father, who had been an architect working in Zurich. Because with the reproductions of some of the illustrated books he made collages, playful new compositions based on the works of artists (the Swiss Max Bill, the Americans Edward Hopper and Roy Liechtenstein, and the Belgian René Magritte) and on depictions of buildings by Le Corbusier, his father's absolute hero on the field of architecture. In “Le Monde du Corbusier” we have an artwork that cites almost all the most significant buildings by Le Corbusier (the church “Notre Dame du Haut [Ronchamp]”; the “Owner’s Association” building in Ahmedabad, India; the “Unité d’Habitation” in Marseille, France; the “Weißenhofsiedlung” in Stuttgart, Germany) and it portraits, in the center of the collage the architect himself, looking over the rim of his characteristic glasses. The collage itself has a delicate and elegant form, somewhat comparable to the elegance of Le Corbusiers buildings. The œuvre of the architect is transformed into a collaged jewel. Hess looks back to a long career and to a very large number of institutional solo-shows of which here just a few are mentioned: Zulieferer unter Druck, Städtische Galerie, Wolfsburg (2016); Der Stoff aus dem die Träume waren, Kunsthalle Münster, Münster (2015); Ein Titel muss her!, Kunststation Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg (2013); The Birds (for Lilou), Swiss Institute, New York (2012); Silberpfeil, Mercedes Benz Museum, Stuttgart (2011); Automatic Crash Response, Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2009); Escape, Schloß Ringenberg, Hamminkeln (2009); Sculptures, The Project, New York (2008); Food4Less, Museo de Zapopan, Zapopan (2007); Walls/Muri (with Federico Herrero...
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Nic Hess art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Nic Hess art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Nic Hess in paper, film, foil and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 21st century and contemporary and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Nic Hess art, so small editions measuring 11 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Humberto Ramirez, Joanne Grune-Yanoff, and Hunter Stabler. Nic Hess art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $2,200 and tops out at $14,000, while the average work can sell for $6,700.

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