Paul Thek (1933-1988) is considered an artist with cult status. In 2008, the ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe (Germany) staged a comprehensive retrospective of his oeuvre. The exhibition “Paul Thek in the Context of Today’s Contemporary Art” featured more than 300 of Paul Thek’s works, most of them in private ownership and therefore only seldom publicly shown. The exhibition also highlights the effect of his work on contemporary art. His influence extends through to the most recent generation of artists. That’s why the exhibition showed also works by Franz Ackermann, Kai Althoff / Robert Elfgen, Cosima von Bonin, Björn Dahlem, Sebastian Hammwöhner / Dani Jakob / Gabriel Vormstein, Rachel Harrison, Axel Heil / John Isaacs, Thomas Hirschhorn, Andreas Hofer, Mike Kelley, Jon Kessler, Suchan Kinoshita, Martin Kippenberger, Jonathan Meese, John Miller, William Pope.L, Gregor Schneider, Zeger Reyers / Lee Ranaldo, Bob & Roberta Smith and Peter Hujar/ Edwin Klein. Part 1 of this video has its focus on the work of Paul Thek, the second part on the works of artists such as Jon Kessler, Mike Kelley and Franz Ackermann.
This the 92nd episode in our VTV Classics (r3) series. VTV Classics (r3) highlights the treasures of VernissageTV’s huge archive. Back then published in Standard Definition, these classics are now re-mastered, re-edited and reissued in High Definition.
“Paul Thek – Werkschau im Kontext zeitgenössischer Kunst” at ZKM – Museum für Neue Kunst, Open House, January 6, 2008. First published on January 18, 2008.
Paul Thek (November 2, 1933 – August 10, 1988) was an American artist known for his work as a painter, sculptor, and one of the earliest creators of installation art. Born George Joseph Thek in Brooklyn, New York, to parents of German and Irish descent, he was the second of four children. He studied at the Art Students League and Pratt Institute in New York in 1950, before enrolling at the Cooper Union School of Art from 1951 to 1954. After graduating, he moved to Miami, where he began his artistic career and adopted the name “Paul” in 1955, distancing himself from his given name.
Thek’s early work included drawings and paintings, but he gained prominence in the 1960s for his sculptures and installations. His “Technological Reliquaries” (1964–1967), wax sculptures resembling raw meat or human limbs encased in Plexiglas, reflected his fascination with the body, mortality, and the visceral, drawing inspiration from a 1962 visit to the Catacombs of the Capuchins in Palermo, Italy. His most famous piece, The Tomb (1967), a pink ziggurat containing a cast of his own body, became associated with the counterculture of the time and is often referred to as Death of a Hippie.
Throughout the 1960s, Thek lived between the United States and Europe, collaborating with artists like Eva Hesse and Peter Hujar, his partner for a time, and forming a close bond with writer Susan Sontag, who dedicated her 1966 essay collection Against Interpretation to him. In the late 1960s and 1970s, he spent significant time in Europe, creating large-scale, ephemeral installations with his “Artist’s Co-op,” using materials like sand, newspaper, and wax to explore themes of time, fragility, and spirituality. Many of these works were destroyed due to their impermanent nature.
Returning to New York in the late 1970s, Thek struggled with obscurity and financial hardship, working odd jobs while continuing to create, including small-scale paintings on newspaper. He died of AIDS-related illness in 1988 at age 54. Posthumously, his work has been celebrated for its innovative approach, with a major retrospective, Diver, held at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2010–2011. Today, his art is housed in collections like the Hirshhorn Museum, Centre Georges Pompidou, and Kolumba, cementing his legacy as a pioneering figure in contemporary art.
