Wolf-D. Schudde - Living Art Bonsai

Schudde was a former artist by the exact meaning of the word.
He discovered Bonsai in very new way. And he was the first one to do so. By now there are several "artists" who combine bonsai with anything else.  His special thinking about the need to find a european way of bonsai that is no longer just repeating the traditional japanese rules ended up in his art called "living art". So that's why he mostly took very low quality trees (often realy nasty trees) and built something totaly new. The German Bonsai Scene was very divided. Many people disliked Schuddes work. But a few payed very good money for it. This all is decades from now. Nowadays he is a star but already dead. Schudde died Christmas 2002. Ho won several prizes all over the world. For example the Ben Oki International Design Award. Very famous is his work called "Tormented, tortured, and still I am alive!". Today there are just a few trees left.

As I am very involved in preserving most of these trees and do also own some of them I am trying to give you a short idea about his work.
Any questions or comments are very welcome! Even the bad ones!

Enjoy.

Best wishes.
Max






"Tormented, tortured, and still I am alive!"



"...Where the sunwinds blow..." part of my collection

Schudde was a former artist by the exact meaning of the word.
He discovered Bonsai in very new way. And he was the first one to do so. By now there are several "artists" who combine bonsai with anything else. His special thinking about the need to find a european way of bonsai that is no longer just repeating the traditional japanese rules ended up in his art called "living art". So that's why he mostly took very low quality trees (often realy nasty trees) and built something totaly new. The German Bonsai Scene was very divided. Many people disliked Schuddes work. But a few payed very good money for it. This all is decades from now. Nowadays he is a star but already dead. He died Christmas 2002. Schudde won several prices all over the world. For example the Ben Oki International Design Award. Very famous is his work called "Tormented, tortured, and still I am alive!". Today there are just a few trees left.

As I am very involved in preserving most of these trees and do also own some of them I am trying to give you a short idea about his work.
Any questions or comments are very welcome! Even the bad ones!

Enjoy.

Best wishes.
Max

Hi Max,
my complements go out to you for maintaining the famous work from this provoking artist! In my early bonsai years I was subscribed to his Bonsai magazine "Bonsai praxis". He was so enthusiastic and sincere in his attempt to show us how to make a bonsai from very bad and sometimes useless material! And all though his taste in bonsai was not shared by many, I for one did not like or maybe did not understand it, but it sure made us all think! And there fore it is good art! That deserves to be cared for to protect his legacy as a european bonsai pioneer and artist!
So bravo Max for maintaining and showing his work! Trough you his spirit lives on! Well don indeed!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

definitely art, and very good modern art, i like it.......... but for me not bonsai in any way - this is art and sculpture using plants I think, so a new descriptive name is needed.

on a practical note the first piece would surely not remain 'intact' after it was watered ? surely the yellow and orange gravel woud spread and get mixed with the darker gravel? Not that it makes the slightest difference to the piece of artwork though as it only needed to exist for the photo really, and could be redone if needed.

I like the desert island image - unique and enlightening - thanks

Best regards Marcus

Interesting stuff. Reminds me of the American artist Nick Lenz.
Paul

Nicewiring job on the oak!
I like some of it and wonder how the trees are maintained. I presume you have a photos of each piece to go by when you dislplay them. Are the various mediums weather proof? For instance the colored sand (or aquarium gravel) is placed before they are showed; or are they maintained in other containers?
Thank you for sharing these works.
Best,
Todd

Thank you very much for all your positive comments!

on a practical note the first piece would surely not remain 'intact' after it was watered ? surely the yellow and orange gravel woud spread and get mixed with the darker gravel?

This is right! Each tree that has a ground made of different colours has to be restyled for every photo or show. But this is no problem at all.

Interesting stuff. Reminds me of the American artist Nick Lenz.

I totaly understand why.

I like some of it and wonder how the trees are maintained. I presume you have a photos of each piece to go by when you dislplay them. Are the various mediums weather proof? For instance the colored sand (or aquarium gravel) is placed before they are showed; or are they maintained in other containers?

Well, as I said, not every tree does still exist! Some of them are made of material that is not sun resistant, some are made of material that is impossible to be replaced. So it is exactly the way you mentioned. I got a big archive with photos and try to restyle for every occasion.
The "colored sand" is in fact no sand but a very unique kind of plastic granulate. Schudde got it from an industrial (He was also a big Schudde collector.) who produced granulates for any plastic items. So you usualy can't buy this granulate anywhere.

Best wishes
Max

Once more: The pictures shown in this thread don't belong to the public.
Who ever wants to use them should at least ask me or Mrs. Meimberg who own these photos.
We usually will allways allow the use without any problems. But just copying them is not okay.

And that copying rule is true of every picture posted on the IBC. Permission of the owner of the photos IS required.

Max, I really like some of these images. Perhaps the last two -- the most simple of them -- strike my fancy the most, but I also like the first one with the red "sand". Thanks for posting this and bringing this man's work to the attention of the many of us who did not know him.

Jim,
thanks a lot for your reply! I am happy you like what you see!
Also I am happy about the very friendly chat I had with the one who used some photos.
So everything is fine.

Best wishes
Max

Wow... (and that's not a good "wow")

I guess the best I can come up with is "one man's trash is another man's treasure."

I like antique cars and own a 1964 Thunderbird convertible. It thrills to see original survivors, and cars lovingly (and expensively) restored to factory specs. I have absolutely no interest in hotrods and "modifieds", and find myself feeling sorry for them when they turn up at shows. For me, this is the bonsai version.

R

Russel,
your statement is absolutely comprehensible!
I think Schudde even wanted the emotions to be opposing.
Some admire and some hate his work. So he'd be happy to read your comment I guess.