Hein Gravenhorst
With Sincere Appreciation to a Friend
I am often thinking back to Herbert, and more than ever, lately …
we had some wonderful adventures together, in the sixties …
many profound discussions about art, is it definable or completely free from limits …
about his “cybernetical aesthetics”, and all that in parallel to the “revolution” in the year 1968 and its aftermath …
the two of us paying a visit to a very prominent collector of succulents …
in tandem with Herbert, exploring an as yet untrodden branch of the Postojna cave system,
on a stop-over in Vienna, an evening tour of the medieval city center, smoke-filled billiard pubs …
and he loved playing badminton, with funny cunning tricks, on that meadow near the hunting-lodge in Kreuzpullach …
and those countless exciting and highly interesting discussions …
his “evening candies” hidden on a bookshelf between those many volumes …
and such a lot of mature answers and hints I got from him on my countless questions …
and a heap of good ideas for my own work as an artist …
and looking back: what a wonderful time full of expectations it was, we were bursting with energy and ideas, day and night …
we were full of intensity and inspired one another in our progress, without the least rivalry …
and I could add a long list of other experiences that I was privileged to share with him …
Dear Herbert, Susanne wrote me on August 30 that you had gone to the stars …
and so I would like to express once again all my gratitude to you …
and send a lot of love up to you, to the stars …
as you know, we will surely meet in the everlasting eternity …
in a word: I thank you with all my heart
Forever Yours, Hein Gravenhorst
BIO
Hein Gravenhorst studied photography from 1953-1955, graphic and industrial design from 1955-1957, and film technology from 1958-1960 in Berlin and Munich. He has been a lecturer in photography at the Kiel University of Applied Sciences 1970. Gravenhorst is one of the representatives of Concrete Photography and, together with Gottfried Jäger and Herbert W. Franke, founded Generative Photography.
He has exhibited his artworks in major digital art exhibitions in the dawn of computer art, such as “New Tendencies IV” in Zagreb in 1968 and the “Wege zur Computerkunst” show in 1970. Gravenhorst’s career as an artist lasted from 1965 until 1973, before he dedicated his life to spiritualism and the Taoistic healing methods. Gravenhorst’s artworks can be found in many prominent art collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.