The nucleus of German pop culture: the original Creamcheese of the sixties

The legendary club returns to Düsseldorf as the Creamcheese Bar with original works. With the reopening of the Kunstpalast in November 2023, a completely new space was opened to the public: the Creamcheese Bar. The Kunstpalast is presenting the partially reconstructed interior and original art of the internationally renowned club, which once existed in the heart of Düsseldorf's old town at Neubrückstraße 12, to the public.

Günther Uecker, painter, object artist and initiator of the original Creamcheese, has supported the Kunstpalast in the realization of the space. Uecker, born in 1930 in Wendorf near Crivitz, once set up the store in Düsseldorf's old town, proving himself to be a visionary. The club was much more than just a pub, bar and dance hall: Creamcheese, which opened in 1967, put German society and its moral concepts of those years to the test and its creators completely changed the way art was perceived in the then young Federal Republic.

From The Dom to Creamcheese

The reason for this was Uecker's trip to the USA and the acquaintance he made there with Andy Warhol. In April 1966, Warhol had rented a Polish dance hall in New York's run-down East Village, had his employees paint all the walls white, hang a rotating mirror ball in the middle of the room and set up countless spotlights, film and slide projectors. He had his house band, The Velvet Underground, play there and fascinated the guests with a performance that had never been seen before. To the idiosyncratic and abstract sounds of the band led by Lou Reed and John Cale, Warhol sent thousands of flickering lights into the room, showing films that - overlapping and playing in endless loops - transformed the room into an inferno of light and sound. Warhol called his temporary club The Dom and Uecker drew lasting inspiration from it. From this, and from an encounter with Frank Zappa, composer, musician and director. The fictional character Suzy Creamcheese, who appears in numerous songs by Zappa, gave the Düsseldorf club its name.

On the flight back, Uecker wrote the Creamcheese Manifesto together with his friend Ferdinand Kriwet. Among other things, it states: "I want to show a society on the run from itself in the place of its desires", "Light, terror, lightning, action, sound, silence" and "New realities: New Possibilities". However, the manifesto not only served as a guideline for the artists that Uecker invited to design Creamcheese together with him, it also became something of an instruction manual for the future audience when the manifesto proclaimed: "We do not survive. We experience", "Art is entertainment" and "Free yourself... Be yourself".

The invited artists, including members of the ZERO artist group led by Uecker's companion Heinz Mack, came up with some very special works for Creamcheese. They designed the club in such a unique way that it soon became a globally renowned scene club. Experimental art of all kinds as well as music, dance and gastronomy were closely intertwined there: Mack's counter made of polished aluminum sheet, Uecker's work "Der Nagel/Electric Garden", Gerhard Richter's mural "Pin Up", a large-format trap painting by Daniel Spoerri, Adolf Luther's mirror and Ferdinand Kriwet's round discs became a walk-in exhibition for guests. The television wall designed by Lutz Mommartz and Günther Uecker was considered an early media installation.

The store, run by restaurateur couple Bim and Hans-Joachim Reinert, ultimately made possible what was unthinkable anywhere else: music, actions, films, theater, literature, fashion, dance - everything was allowed, welcome and participatory, in the spirit of the general revolt against bourgeois ideals in the 1960s. Bands such as Can from Cologne, Tangerine Dream from Berlin and an early formation of the band Kraftwerk played at Creamcheese. Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa were also guests at the club. While young artists such as Imi Knoebel, Blinky Palermo and Katharina Sieverding often worked behind the bar, established artists such as Joseph Beuys, Joachim Duckwitz, Anatol Herzfeld, Ulrich Meister and Johannes Stüttgen staged highly acclaimed art events at Creamcheese. The club received its first museum attention early on: "This is not a pub," stated the then Documenta founder and director Arnold Bode, "but a total work of art" and invited the operators to Documenta 4 with a branch of Creamcheese in 1968 without further ado. When the club had to close in 1976, the art collection finally bought up parts of the Gesamtkunstwerk and stored the works with foresight.

From the club in the old town to the installation in the museum

The current reconstruction of the Creamcheese room in the Kunstpalast Düsseldorf now gives an idea of the importance it once had in the art and culture world. And also the radiance that once emanated from the Düsseldorf art scene and the now 93-year-old Günther Uecker with his revolutionary idea of rethinking art.

kunstpalast.de

Tip: The bar in the Creamcheese room is not just an installation, but you can experience real bar service there at the weekend.
Opening hours: Friday & Saturday from 7 pm to 1 am.

Text: Sven-André Dreyer
Photo credits
Lead photo
Gerhard Richter's "PIN UP" at Creamcheese. 1967 Kunstpalast Düsseldorf / © Photo: Bernd Jansen, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2023 © Work: Gerhard Richter
Further photos
Projection by Ferdinand Kriwet: 21.7.1967 Donation Anita Wandrey, Kunstpalast Düsseldorf / © Photo: Hanns Hemann © Work: Estate of Ferdinand Kriwet
Creamcheese Manifesto: Düsseldorf Tourismus
Heinz Mack's bar at Creamcheese. Undated Kunstpalast Düsseldorf / © Photo: Walter Klein © Work: Heinz Mack, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2023
Günther Uecker's Nagel im Creamcheese. 1972 Donation Anita Wandrey, Kunstpalast Düsseldorf / © Photo: Bernd Jansen, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2023 © Work: Günther Uecker, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023