Ulfert Wilke was an internationally recognized German-born American painter, museum director and art collector connected to the abstract expressionism movement.
11 Facts About Ulfert Wilke
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Ulfert Wilke's father, Rudolf Wilke, was an illustrator for the satirical magazine, Simplicissimus.
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Ulfert Wilke was born in Bavaria, Germany, and immigrated to the United States in 1938.
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Ulfert Wilke is best known for his large canvas paintings and highly detailed lithographs that were inspired by calligraphic writing.
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Ulfert Wilke was an avid art collector, particularly of tribal art, and was the founding director of the University of Iowa Museum of Art.
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Ulfert Wilke studied art at Harvard on a Carnegie scholarship before being drafted into the US Army in 1942.
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Ulfert Wilke received the Guggenheim Fellowship twice, which he used to travel to work and study first in Munich and Rome, and later Kyoto, Japan where he lived in monastery and studied Japanese Zen calligraphy under the monks.
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Ulfert Wilke lived in New York City at this time and worked as a professor at Rutgers University.
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Ulfert Wilke maintained close relationships with many famed artist colleagues including Ad Reinhardt, Julius Bissier, George Rickey, Mark Rothko, Lyonel Feininger, Max Beckmann, Mark Tobey, Kenzo Okada, Robert Motherwell and David Smith.
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Ulfert Wilke served as museum director there until relocating to Hawaii in 1978.
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Ulfert Wilke had many solo exhibitions throughout the United States and internationally, and was awarded many honors, including an exhibition and award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.