Klaus Urbons is a German photographer and xerographyprintmaker. He is a pioneer and leading figure of copy art in Germany and not only. He founded the Museum für Fotokopie, and is the author and translator of books on the history of Copy Art and photocopiers, as well as a curator and a collector.
Biography
After completing secondary school, Klaus did an apprenticeship as a typographer. At the same time he studied visual communication and art history at the Hochschule Düsseldorf. In 1976, he co-founded the first artist's gallery and picture lending library in Mülheim an der Ruhr, called "Atelier i.d. Altstadt". In December 1977 the first artistic works with copiers were produced and displayed. In the following years, two other artist's galleries evolved from this first project: the "Panoptikum" and the "Holoskop". Since 1980, Urbons has been self-employed as an author, graphic-designer, curator, artist and has been researching on the history, technology and art of photocopying, electrography and digital media. He is one of the major experts in this field worldwide. In 1984 the international exhibition project, curated by Urbons, "Art Shelter — Kunstschutzkeller", took place. It has been a 1 year long project that involved a large group of international artists. In March 1985 Klas Urbons founded the "Museum für Fotokopie" in Mülheim an der Ruhr, an international forum for technology and Art produced with photocopiers. The Museum built up one of the most important collection of Art in this field, covering the technological and artistic history of modern photocopying Art. More than 20 exhibitions of Copy Art produced by artists from Germany and abroad have been organized by the Museum as well as competitions and workshops. The Museum also collected several devices from the very early stages of this printing technique in the 1950s: in Germany called Blitzkopie and in the USA called xerography. The collection of about 100 copying machines and consumables, technical library & documentation as well as a prospectus collection is hosted by the German Museum of Technology in 1999. In 2013, Urbons co-founded the "Makroscope: Centre for Art and Technology" in Mülheim. In 2017, Klaus Urbons was awarded the Prize.
Exhibitions and Projects
1988: Member of the jury for "2. Biennale für Copy Art and Electrografie" in Valencia, Spain
1990: Speech on the developments in "Copier Art & Technology" on the opening of the "MIDE — Museo Internacional de Electrografia" in Cuenca, Spain
1997—1998: Participation in the "Kopieren met de K van Kunst" project at the museum, Tilburg, Netherlands
2004: Conception of the BlackBox project, a hiking exhibition on the photocopy
2007—2008: Participation in the exhibition "Kunst, Zukunft, Ruhrgebient" in the
2008: "Copy Copy — 70 jahre trocken Kopieren", an event of the BlackBox project in the Mülheimer Büromuseum with the first demonstrations of the Astoria experiment by Chester F. Carlson and his assistant Ing Otto Kornei in 1938.
2009: Presentation of the first Xerographic book coper from 1950 as well as the Astoria experiment at the Xerox Innovation Session, Neuss
2009: "Body & Copy" International Copy Art Exhibition by Silvio de Garcia
2010: Copy Art-Workshop in Art Teaching, Realschule Broich, Mülheim and FH Design in Offenbach with students of Prof. Andreas Lobe
2014: Participation in the exhibition "Der subversive Geist" within the framework of the Ruhrart scene, among others. with a documentation of the "Art Shelter 1984"
2016: Curator of the exhibition "Pictures in Minutes" | "Minutenbilder" in the Makroscope Centre for Art and Technology in Mülheim
Publications
Kopieren heute : d. Geschichte d. Fotokopie u. ihre heutige Anwendung für d. moderne Büro, 1988. Co-author.
Copy art : Kunst und Design mit dem Fotokopierer, 1991.
Elektrografie : analoge und digitale Bilder 1994. With contributions by international artists.
Chester F. Carlson und die Xerografie, 2008. Containing the first biography of the inventor in the German language. Was published on the occasion of the exhibition "Copy Copy – 70 Jahre trocken Kopieren".
Edith Weyde - How an inventor from the Rhine-Land changed the world, 2016. Co-authors: Klaus Urbons, José Ramón Alcalá, Susanne Dickel, Gert Koshofer, Rolf Sachsse, Edith Weyde. Bi-lingual German/English. Published on the occasion of the exhibition "Minutenbilder/Pictures in Minutes".
