Micha Ullman (; born 11 October 1939) is an Israeli sculptor and professor of art.

Biography Ullman was born in Tel Aviv to German Jews who immigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1933.Michal Lando. Art that hints at big questions, The Forward. April 22, 2009 As a teenager, he attended the Kfar HaYarok agricultural school.The Accidental Sculptor, Haaretz In 1960-1964, he studied at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. In 1965, he attended the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, where he learned etching.

Ullman is married to Mira, and lives in Ramat Hasharon, Israel.

Academic career He taught at Bezalel Academy in 1970 - 1978. He became a visiting professor at Academy of Arts Düsseldorf in 1976. He taught at the University of Haifa from 1979 - 1989. He was appointed Professor of Sculpture at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart from 1991 to 2005.Galerie Cora Hölzl. Micha Ullman, Retrieved 13 May 2009.

Artistic career

Ullman created the underground “Empty Library” memorial on Bebelplatz square in Berlin, where the Nazi book burnings began in 1933. The memorial consists of a window on the surface of the plaza, under which vacant bookshelves are lit and visible. A bronze plaque bears a quote by Heinrich Heine: “Where books are burned in the end people will burn.”Edward Rothstein. In Berlin, Teaching Germany’s Jewish History, The New York Times, May 1, 2009 This memorial was inaugurated in May 1995.Jennifer A. Jordan. Structures of memory: understanding urban change in Berlin and beyond, Stanford University Press, 2006. P. 103. (see book burning). Ullman explains: "It begins with the void that exists in every pit and will not disappear. You could say that emptiness is a state, a situation formed by the sides of the pit: The deeper it is, the more sky there will be and the greater the void. In the library containing the missing books, that void is more palpable. We expect [the books] but they are not there."

In 1997, Ullman completed a synagogue memorial in collaboration with Zvi Hecker and Eyal Weizmann, commemorating the former Lindenstraße synagogue in Kreuzberg.Jordan, p. 149

Another of his creations is "Hochwasser" ("Flooding") on a small island near the Werra River in Germany. It was inspired by a boat Ullman saw there with a sign on it stating it had a capacity of up to seven passengers. Ullman's father, Yitzhak, who had lived nearby, immigrated to Palestine with his seven siblings in 1933.

Ullman is represented in the art collection of the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart with the representative fourpart work ″Du″, created in 1992 and shown at Documenta 9, which was given to the Academy as a permanent loan in 1993 by the Ministry of Science and Art Baden-Württemberg at the suggestion of the former Rector and head of the collection, Wolfgang Kermer.Gabriele Merkes (Ed.): Die Sammlung der Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart: Katalog der Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart. Stuttgart: Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart, 2000, , pp. 100–101, 157–158, reprod. p. 101; see also German Wikipedia

Sculptural style Ullman creates subterranean sculptures, some of which barely protrude from the ground. They touch on universal themes such as the meaning of place and home, absence and emptiness. They have been described as simultaneously "celestial and earthbound, metaphysical but sensual and tactile.

Gallery

Education 1960-1964 Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Academy, Jerusalem 1965 Central School of Arts and Crafts, London

Teaching 1970-1978 Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, drawing, basic design and etching 1976 Guest lecturer at Fine Arts Academy, Düsseldorf 1979 Haifa University, basic design, drawing, three-dimensional design 1979-1985 Faculty of Architecture, Technion, Haifa 1991–2005 State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart, sculpture

Awards and prizes Ullman was awarded the Israel Prize for sculpture in April 2009.

1963 Sonborn Prize, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design Academy of Arts & Design, Jerusalem 1972 The Beatrice S. Kolliner Award for a Young Israeli Artist, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel 1980 The Sandberg Prize for Israeli Art, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel 1985 Mendel Pundik Prize, Tel Aviv Museum 1989 Annual Scholarship, DAAD, Berlin 1995 Käthe Kollwitz Prize, Academy of Arts, Berlin 1996 Zussman Prize, Yad Vashem 1996 Member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin 1997 - פרס החברה לתרבות ולשלום בינלאומי, עמאן, ירדן. 1998 Janet and George Jarin Prize, America Israel Cultural Foundation 2000 Gamzu Prize and Aftovitzer Fund, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv 2004 Awarded Honorary Ph.D, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 2005 Hans-Thoma-Preis, Staatspreis des Landes Baden - Wurttemberg, Germany 2009 Israel Prize for Sculpture 2010 Gerhard- Altenbourg-Preis, Lindenau Museum Altenburg 2011 Moses-Mendelssohn-Preis des Landes Berlin, Germany

Outdoor and public art 1983 Sky, limestone, Tel Hai, Israel 1984 Ben Hinnom Valley, iron and cable, Jerusalem 1984 Lot's Wife, earth, Mt. Sodom, Israel 1989 Jesod (Foundation), cement and sand, Rothschild Boulevard, Tel Aviv 1991 Schodnia (East), asphalt, Lodz, Poland 1992 Sea Level, cast iron, sandstone and glass, 22 Allenby St., Tel Aviv 1992 Niemand, corten steel and red loam, Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany 1995 The Empty Library, cement and glass, Bebelplatz, Berlin, Germany 1996-1997 Water, Zion Square, West Jerusalem and Freres Street, East Jerusalem

See also List of Israel Prize recipients Dorit Kedar, "A fine balance: Michael Gross and Micha Ulman" In Art In Israel Autumn 1989, Vol. 1, Number 3, Pg. 28-31.

References

External links

Official site of Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste