Rune Mields
Rune Mields
In Memoriam RUNE MIELDS (1935 – 2026)
It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our artist, Rune Mields. Over nearly fifteen years of working together, a deep bond and genuine closeness developed between us. Her remarkable intelligence — which she herself would always modestly deny — never ceased to fascinate us. She often concealed her deep empathy for others and her sincere interest in people behind an outward reserve. She nurtured her friendships with extraordinary devotion and striking generosity. Openly, she shared her passion for numbers, systems, and beauty, but equally for 1. FC Köln and, of course, for the city she loved so dearly, Cologne. She had a wonderful sense of humor and repeatedly surprised us with her dry wit and sharp repartee. Her pride, her dignity, and her alert, lucid mind remained entirely undiminished until the very end. We will miss her deeply. At the same time, we are grateful that, together with Rune’s family, we will be able to continue caring for and working in service of her artistic legacy.
The Rhineland art scene has lost one of its defining figures. Artist Rune Mields, who had lived in Cologne since the early 1970s, passed away on 27 June 2026 at the age of 91. She died peacefully in her sleep on Saturday. For decades, Rune Mields profoundly shaped and influenced the Rhineland art scene in particular. With a body of work that seemed almost outside of time and defied clear stylistic categorization, she established a truly singular artistic position. We have lost an artist who was deeply committed to bringing greater awareness to — and strengthening — the role of women in art within an art world that, at the time, was overwhelmingly dominated by men.
For more than sixty years, Rune Mields worked as an independent artist, exploring creation myths, systems of order across cultures, structures, and beauty itself. With unwavering dedication, she continuously examined the essential nature of things and their visual significance — whether in mathematics, physics, philosophy, or music. Questions of space and time, infinity, and humanity’s enduring aspirations gave rise to countless series of paintings and drawings. The clarity of thought and content in her work was always matched by a remarkable clarity of form. Abstraction, linearity, and schematic reduction, most often expressed through a strict limitation to black, white, and shades of grey, became defining characteristics of her artistic language.
And yet, there was always an enduring fascination with beauty — the beauty of simplicity found in prehistoric cave paintings, the beauty of ancient Arabic ornamentation, the beauty of painting and construction in the work of Paolo Uccello from the inquisitive spirit of the Early Renaissance, beauty in the thought and poetry of Novalis, beauty in music ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach to Igor Stravinsky, the beauty of the human body, and the beauty found in the paintings of Henri Matisse. Through reflecting on the structures of the world, Rune Mields consistently created works that stood as harmonies against chaos — as spaces for thought and beauty, opening toward a new infinity.
Rune Mields was born in Münster in 1935. She trained as a bookseller before pursuing her path as a self-taught artist. In 1977, she participated in documenta 6 in Kassel. A visiting professorship at the Berlin University of the Arts and a residency at Villa Massimo shaped the 1980s. From the 1970s through 2025, numerous exhibitions and awards documented and affirmed her remarkable artistic journey.
In accordance with her wishes, Rune Mields will be laid to rest at the Künstler-Nekropole Kassel, affiliated with the Museum für Sepulkralkultur. The grave site was designed by the artist herself in 1992. In 2027, an exhibition jointly planned with Rune Mields during her lifetime will take place at the Kunsthalle Giessen and the Museum Morsbroich. This two-part exhibition will now honor her oeuvre in the form of a retrospective.
For press inquires please contact us via info@galerie-andreae.de.
Photo: Rune Mields in her studio, 2015, Portrait by Michael Böttcher, Courtesy Galerie Andreae, Bonn.
RUNE MIELDS | Monopol Magazin
“To understand life, you have to understand mathematics": the painter Rune Mields is a German conceptual pioneer who has just turned 90. But she doesn't want to retire mentally. In an interview with freya Dieckmann, the artist talks about the infinity of numbers, devaluation by men and advice she didn't listen to.
Read the entire interview with Rune Mields for Monopol Magazine at monopol-magazin.de
RUNE MIELDS | Kunstmuseum Bonn Sammlungspräsentation
On the occasion of her 90th birthday, the Kunstmuseum Bonn is dedicating a room in its collection presentation to the conceptual painter Rune Mields (*1935 in Münster, lives and works in Cologne). Numerous works by the artist have long been a permanent fixture in the museum’s collection.
A donation from Prof. Dr Gerhard Pfennig, Bonn, has completed the collection since 2024, from which a selection of works, will now be shown in a single artist room in the museum’s collection presentation. The presentation is complemented by several loans from Galerie Judith Andreae, Bonn, which represents the artist.
February 11, 2025 – May 17, 2026.
RUNE MIELDS | Ludwig Forum Aachen
With “The infinite space - expands”, the Ludwig Forum Aachen presents the work of Rune Mields (*1935 in Münster), who lived in Aachen between 1965 and 1970. The starting point of the presentation is her so-called “tube paintings”, which she worked on from the end of the 1960s and of which Peter and Irene Ludwig acquired no. 26 for their collection in 1969. In combination with numerous studio drawings and two groups of works from the subsequent period, concentrated insights are provided into the artistic working process and her ongoing treatment of “infinite spaces” for over five decades in an examination of systems, theories and phenomena from mathematics, geometry, physics, philosophy and other sciences.
Curated by Eva Birkenstock with the assistance of Anna Marckwald and Mailin Haberland. Accompanied by a cabinet exhibition on the Aachen art association “Gegenverkehr - Zentrum für aktuelle Kunst e.V.”, co-founded by Rune Mields, by Holger Otten, Anna Marckwald and Miriam Schmidt.
LUNITA-JULY DORN & RUNE MIELDS | Palazzo Bembo, Venice
"Unapologetic WomXn", curated by Destinee Ross-Sutton, NY, 20. April - 24. November 2024, Palazzo Bembo, Venedig.
“Unapologetic WomXn”, The Dream is the Truth”, curated by Destinee Ross-Sutton, NY & Stockholm. This international group exhibition consists of 31 female artists on the subject of female sexuality through their own eyes while creating a safe space of community, allowing for more of a humanized view of anything the artists focus on; their bodies, experiences, how women navigate the world within the changes that occur in it constantly, and the importance of artists and art not conforming to the constraints of our societies. This isn’t dissimilar to the way a traditionally male dominated society has imposed and still imposes their idea of what a woman should be; art is supposed to make you feel; whether it being a sense of peace or shakes and asks you to confront your ideas, otherwise isn’t it just decoration? Are women only decoration? A mere object?
RUNE MIELDS | Frauenmuseum, Bonn
"beyond algorithms_digital utopia", 7. April - 17. November 2024, VERNISSAGE am 7. April um 13.30h, Frauenmuseum, Bonn.
RUNE MIELDS | re:discover art Karlsruhe 2024
Wir freuen uns auf der diesjährigen art Karlsruhe 2024 im Förderprogramm re:discover mit Arbeiten der Künstlerin RUNE MIELDS vertreten zu sein.
Sie finden uns auf der Messe in der Halle 2, Stand D 06.
Seit nunmehr fast über fünfzig Jahren arbeitet Rune Mields (*1935 in Münster) als freischaffende Künstlerin, untersucht die Welt auf ihre Schöpfungsmythen, auf Ordnungssysteme der Kulturen, auf Strukturen, auf Schönheit. Ungebrochen befragt sie das Wesentliche, das Wesen der Dinge auf ihren visuellen Wert - sei es in der Mathematik, der Physik, der Philosophie oder auch der Musik. Fragen nach Raum und Zeit, nach Unendlichkeit und dem Streben der Menschen bedingen unzählige Werkserien in Malerei und Zeichnung. Immer entspricht der Klarheit von Denken und Inhalt eine große Klarheit der Darstellung, mit einem Hang zu Abstraktion, Geradlinigkeit und Schematisierung, mit zumeist strenger Beschränkung auf Schwarz, Weiß und die Werte des Grau.
Und doch war und ist da immer auch die große Faszination im Angesicht von Schönheit - Schönheit des Einfachen in Höhlenmalereien der Steinzeit, Schönheit alter arabischer Ornamente, Schönheit bestechender Malerei und Konstruktion im Werk Paolo Uccellos aus wissbegierigen Zeiten der Frührenaissance, Schönheit in Gedanken und Poesie bei Novalis, Schönheit in der Musik von Bach bis Strawinsky, Schönheit des menschlichen Körpers, Schönheit in der Malerei eines Henri Matisse. Aus der Reflexion der Strukturen der Welt entwickelt Rune Mields unbeirrt Werke als Harmonien gegen das Chaos, als Orte des Denkens und der Schönheit für eine neue Unendlichkeit.
Rune Mields hat an zahlreichen Ausstellungen im In- und Ausland teilgenommen, wie zum Beispiel an der documenta 6. Erste wichtige Präsentationen fanden in Bonn statt: So in der Galerie Philomene Magers, in der Galerie Circulus, im Kunstmuseum Bonn, im Kunstverein Bonn und im Frauenmuseum Bonn. Sie wurde mit diversen Preisen ausgezeichnet, u.a. mit dem Kritikerpreis für Bildende Kunst. 1984 war sie Ehrengast in der Villa Massimo in Rom, 1996 erhielt sie den Harry-Graf-Kessler-Preis, 1997 den Kulturpreis der Stadt Köln, 2000 den Gabriele Münter-Preis und 2009 den Konrad von Soest-Preis. Ihre Werke sind in nationalen sowie internationalen Sammlungen vertreten, so z.B. im Museum Ludwig, Köln; im ZKM, Karlsruhe und in der Nationalgalerie, Berlin, neben vielen weiteren.
Rune Mields lebt und arbeitet in Köln.
RUNE MIELDS | KOLUMBA, Cologne
Wort Schrift Zeichen. Das Alphabet der Kunst
KOLUMBA, Köln
15. September 2023 – 14. August 2024
Werke u.a. von Birgit Antoni, Monika Bartholomé, Kurt Benning, Anna Blume, Louise Bourgeois, Felix Droese, Terry Fox, Marta Hegemann, Rebecca Horn, Bethan Huws, Leiko Ikemura, Buket Isgören, Hans Josephsohn, Leonhard Kern, Konrad Klaphek, Robert Klümpen, Jannis Kounellis, Dieter Krieg, Susanne Kümpel, Stefan Lochner, Reinhard Matz, Bärbel Messmann, Rune Mields, Chris Newman, Marcel Odenbach, Thomas Rentmeister, Raymond Roussel, Lothar Schreyer, Richard Serra, Manos Tsangaris, Andy Warhol, Dorothee von Windheim und Studierenden der BURG Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule Halle.
Für nähere Informationen: https://www.kolumba.de
Copyright Installationsansicht: KOMULBA, Köln
Vita
lebt und arbeitet in Köln
Lehre zur Buchhändlerin
Gastprofessur an der Hochschule der Künste Berlin
Ehrengast der Villa Massimo, Rom
freischaffende Künstlerin
Scholarships & Prizes
Kölner Kritikerpreis
Harry Graf Kessler-Preis
Kulturpreis der Stadt Köln
Gabriele Münter Preis, Leipzig
Konrad-von-Soest-Preis, Münster
Trägerin des Zonta Cologne Art Award
Solo Exhibition
Group Exhibition
Art in public space
Künstler-Nekropole Kassel
Represented in collections
Museum Ludwig, Köln
Diözesanmuseum, Köln
Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf
Kunsthalle Bremen
Karl-Ernst-Osthausen-Museum, Hagen
Stadt Göttingen
Landesmuseum Münster
Sztukimuzeum Lódz, PL
Universitätsmuseum Marburg
Museum of Fine Art, Budapest
Landesmuseum Mainz
Hedendagse Kunst, Utrecht
Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum Aachen
ZKM Karlsruhe
Kunstmuseum Bonn
Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, USA
Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn
Sammlung des Bundestages, Deutschland
Kunsthalle Kiel
Sammlungen der Bundesregierung, Deutschland
Museum Ulm
Sammlung des Landes Baden-Württemberg
Bayrische Staatsgemäldesammlung, München
Institut für Auslandbeziehungen IFA, Stuttgart
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
Städtisches Clemens-Sels-Museum, Neuss
Nationalgalerie, Berlin
Sammlung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
Kupferstichkabinett Berlin
Museum am Dom, Würzburg
Volpinum, Wien
Der Tagesspiegel | "Die Uhr tickt, der Absatz klackt"
Oft schließt sich der zeitliche Kreis – wenn etwa die 1935 geborene Künstlerin Rune Mields die Partitur einer Bach-Kantate in ihrem Bild „Welt ich bleibe nicht mehr hier (Bach Cantata No. 82)“zitiert.