20 Facts About HA Schult

HA Schult is one of the first artists to deal with the world's ecological imbalance in his work and has therefore been called an "eco-art pioneer".

HA Schult's best known works include the touring work, Trash People, which exhibited on all continents, and the Save The Beach hotel, a building made of garbage.

HA Schult studied art at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf from 1958 to 1961, where he was a student of Georg Meistermann, Joseph Fassbender, and Karl Otto Gotz.

However, HA Schult had problems establishing a reputation as an artist in the US, which he attributed to his criticism of America's consumption-driven mentality.

HA Schult's son is the German film director, Kolin Schult.

An action like the one by HA Schult follows here the same line, the attempt to fuse art and life again into one unit, which of course still gives the individual the liberty to accept this as art or not.

However, HA Schult primarily uses trash as an artistic material both for his object art and happenings.

HA Schult describes himself as an ardent proponent of the "new ecological consciousness" and was referred to as an "eco-art pioneer" by Washington Post writer Rachel Beckman.

HA Schult confronts the feudalism, which is manifested in gigantic triumphant buildings with the pauperism of the exploited workers who built them.

HA Schult pays tribute to the unnamed soldiers and slaves and not to the heroes and sovereigns.

HA Schult calls our attention to our own conspicuous consumption, obsessively returning to the metaphor of garbage, refuse dumps, and debris.

HA Schult describes his picture boxes as expressing the 'archeology of everyday life'.

Der Mull des Franz Beckenbauer: In 1974, HA Schult stole the contents of the waste containers of the international footballer, Franz Beckenbauer and presented what he had found in the Lenbachhaus, Munich.

HA Schult's installation inspired Chinese artist He Chengyao's first piece of performance art titled Opening the Great Wall.

Hotel Europe: In 1999, at Cologne-Bonn airport autobahn, HA Schult realized Hotel Europe, an empty multistory building covered with 130 oversize portraits of celebrities.

Trees for Peace : In 2003, HA Schult decorated the birch trees on the premises of the Zollverein coal mine in Essen with thousands of painted, written and photographic wishes for peace.

AutoDom: In 2006, HA Schult created the AutoDom sculpture, using parts from Ford Fiesta and Ford Fusion cars to build a symbolic bridge between Cologne and New York City.

In 2015, HA Schult started his Action Blue world tour with a hybrid electric car from Paris to Beijing, which critically reflects the natural resources air and water on earth.

In 2009, HA Schult was the founder of the OkoGlobe-Institut, established at the University Duisburg-Essen.

HA Schult is one of the directors of this eco institute.