The sculptor Ulrich Rückriem designed the new altar in the renovated Hildesheim Cathedral.
Ulrich Rückriem was born on September 30, 1938 in Düsseldorf. He first completed an apprenticeship as a stonemason in Düren near Aachen. For a while he worked at the Cologne Cathedral workshop and studied at the Cologne Werkschulen under Ludwig Gies. During this time he was already working as a freelance artist. For a long time he worked together with Blinky Palermo in a studio in Mönchengladbach; in later years he lived and worked in Ireland for a time.
His art also enjoys a high international reputation and is represented in many large collections and museums as well as in numerous public places and public buildings such as the Reichstag in Berlin. The numerous solo and group exhibitions include multiple participations in the documenta in Kassel and an exhibition at the Venice Biennale (1978 with Dieter Krieg).
Rückriem is often classified as minimal, process or conceptual art. However, he himself rejects these categories.
Since 1994, around 100 of his works have been presented in two halls and on a 2000 square meter outdoor area in Rommerskirchen-Sinsteden near Neuss/North Rhine-Westphalia. The sculpture hall is attached to the Sinsteden Cultural Center/Sinsteden Agricultural Museum. On the occasion of his 70th birthday, he donated his archive, which includes some of his graphic work, to the Ruhr University Bochum.
Rückriem took on several professorships, including at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg, at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main and at the Düsseldorf Art Academy - which had rejected him as a student. After many stops, including international ones, Rückriem now lives and works in London and Cologne.