Kopfüber in die Ewigkeit
Conceptual artist Timm Ulrichs, who died on April 29 at age 86, has been buried in a self-designed grave in the Künstlernekropole (artists' necropolis) near Kassel, Germany. His tomb features a life-size bronze cast of his body buried head-first in the earth, with only the soles of his feet visible above ground. Ulrichs, a pioneer of West German postwar conceptual art known for provocative works like tattooing himself and locking himself inside a hollowed boulder, was laid to rest in the forest cemetery founded by artist Harry Kramer in 1992.
This final gesture matters because it completes Ulrichs' lifelong artistic engagement with mortality and irony. The upside-down burial echoes his career-long struggle for recognition, often overshadowed by contemporaries like Georg Baselitz—who died the same day as Ulrichs and dominated media coverage. The grave is part of the Künstlernekropole, a unique institution where artists control their own memorials, and Ulrichs' plot joins those of other notable figures. The story highlights how an artist can shape even their own legacy with conceptual wit, turning death into a final artistic statement.