Unger Arthur

Arthur Unger was born in Luxembourg on 11 July 1932. Fascinated by Africa and its cultures, he spent several years in the former Belgian Congo from 1956 onwards and later travelled to various countries in West Africa. His work is strongly influenced by his African experience of unusual traditions and landscapes. In 1970, he developed a new technique of painting with fire on thin sheets of electrolytic copper, which he called “pyrochimiograms”. Arthur Unger is a material artist and painter of informal expression and in 1970 he met the great art critic Michel Tapié in Paris. Tapié exhibited his work and published a monograph on him in 1980. In 1983, he met the Parisian art historian Ante Glibota who organised his major exhibitions, including retrospective museum exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. He also devoted several books to him, especially a bibliophilic book with the Spanish poet and playwright Fernando Arrabal. Arthur Unger has had more than 80 exhibitions (Europe and the People’s Republic of China). In 1974 he received the Grand Duke’s Prize in Luxembourg and in 2017 the Phoenix Art Price in China. He lives and works in Luxembourg.