Zero, Utopia and The German Avant-Garde
Zero is silence. Zero is the beginning. Zero is round. Zero spins. Zero is the moon.
The sun is Zero. Zero is white. The desert Zero. The sky above Zero. The night.
Poem 1963 - Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Gunther Uecker
Zero-Wecker - 1961 - Heinz Mack I think most people would jump at the chance to make a new start if they could! Artists as a group of people are notorious for wanting to find or initiate the next big thing whether for fame or personal achievement. After the widespread destruction of World War 2 in Europe there was a strong collective desire for change or renewal, particularly in Germany.
In 1957 Otto Piene and Heinz Mack two artists who had met and studied together at the Dusseldorf art academy, set out to transform and redefine art by taking it back to basics and liberating it from what they saw as a state of "chaos." By 1961 Gunther Uecker had joined them and the nucleus of the "Zero" group and arguably the new German "avante garde," was intact. Over the next decade they joined forces with as many as forty other artists from around the world that shared the same desire for change in art. The result of their collaborations and impact on the next generation of artists may well be the influence that spawned a whole range of new art categories which we take for granted today. ZERO is not meant to imply "nothing" or "nullification" but rather the utopian idea of "ground zero" or a new "beginning" for art.
In 1957 Otto Piene and Heinz Mack two artists who had met and studied together at the Dusseldorf art academy, set out to transform and redefine art by taking it back to basics and liberating it from what they saw as a state of "chaos." By 1961 Gunther Uecker had joined them and the nucleus of the "Zero" group and arguably the new German "avante garde," was intact. Over the next decade they joined forces with as many as forty other artists from around the world that shared the same desire for change in art. The result of their collaborations and impact on the next generation of artists may well be the influence that spawned a whole range of new art categories which we take for granted today. ZERO is not meant to imply "nothing" or "nullification" but rather the utopian idea of "ground zero" or a new "beginning" for art.
Inflatable Iowa Star - 1979 - Otto Piene There has been a resurgence of interest in the "ZERO" group by academics and scholars around the world and it's about time! It seems to take a few decades, sometimes even longer for people to realize the significance of a seminal creative practice or event. Time seems to be the necessary medium through which all things are tested and confirmed out of the whirlpool of cultural detritus and "ZERO" has been no exception! It is remarkable that a movement that contributed so much to the development of modern art styles has had such a low profile in academia and the marketplace.
The Guggenheim Museum in New York currently has an exhibition showing titled "Zero: Countdown To Tomorrow, 1950's-60s" which attempts to tease out the myriad connections forged between the artists from nearly every continent that were involved with the collective and it's aims. Out of ZERO came a diverse use of media that anticipated, "Land Art," "Minimalism," "Performance" and "Conceptual Art." The artists attempted to redefine painting by promoting the "monochrome," serial structures and fire and smoke paintings. Formal and idea-based aspects of light and movement art became vitally important in the group's oeuvre. Due to the dearth of galleries in post war Europe, the ZERO artists initiated live action or performance based work in designated spaces/studios that often occurred for one night only. They used space as both subject and material and explored the connections between technology, nature and humans. There was a concerted effort to do whatever it took to take the idea of what art was (traditional, ie; think painting) and transform it to meet the needs of "future" man! In the words of Heinz Mack, for example,
"painting had overcome the mannerism of geometric abstraction, and found itself in a disorganized state, one of giddiness, after finally finding its own champions."
Simply, in order for painting to go anywhere there was a necessity to now plumb its potential with color and line as Mondrian had accomplished "par excellence" in his three final, "Boogie Woogie" paintings prior to his death. These paintings were greatly admired by the ZERO artists as having approached the zenith of what painting is about according to their philosophy of painterly structures for the new age.
The Guggenheim Museum in New York currently has an exhibition showing titled "Zero: Countdown To Tomorrow, 1950's-60s" which attempts to tease out the myriad connections forged between the artists from nearly every continent that were involved with the collective and it's aims. Out of ZERO came a diverse use of media that anticipated, "Land Art," "Minimalism," "Performance" and "Conceptual Art." The artists attempted to redefine painting by promoting the "monochrome," serial structures and fire and smoke paintings. Formal and idea-based aspects of light and movement art became vitally important in the group's oeuvre. Due to the dearth of galleries in post war Europe, the ZERO artists initiated live action or performance based work in designated spaces/studios that often occurred for one night only. They used space as both subject and material and explored the connections between technology, nature and humans. There was a concerted effort to do whatever it took to take the idea of what art was (traditional, ie; think painting) and transform it to meet the needs of "future" man! In the words of Heinz Mack, for example,
"painting had overcome the mannerism of geometric abstraction, and found itself in a disorganized state, one of giddiness, after finally finding its own champions."
Simply, in order for painting to go anywhere there was a necessity to now plumb its potential with color and line as Mondrian had accomplished "par excellence" in his three final, "Boogie Woogie" paintings prior to his death. These paintings were greatly admired by the ZERO artists as having approached the zenith of what painting is about according to their philosophy of painterly structures for the new age.
Concetto Spaziale, Attese - 1959 - Lucio Fontana I suspect that the post war era of poverty, deprivation and reconstruction in Germany enabled the ZERO founders to see with a clarity unfettered by the new post war consumer culture across the Atlantic in the USA. While American artists were trying to get free of the European tradition of easel art and build an abstract utopian vision of their own in New York City, the Zero group were attempting to do the same working from a different premise. They were sitting in the ruins and devastation of war, thinking, 'things can only look up, they can't get much worse' whereas the Americans were sitting in the heart of prosperity. In that kind of wretched environment utopian dreams seem possible, even desirable; a flight of fancy to escape a feeling of despair and hopelessness.
In a sense, ZERO art emerges from the urge to invent objects that are meant to symbolize the shining future and the freedom that new future might offer in which to create a state-of-the-art hand crafted world. These objects are constructed for the most part from modern materials like glass, steel and plastic often combined with moving parts, motors and lights. They are harbingers of the art objects and installations that we now take as commonplace in galleries and museums everywhere minus of course the video and digital computer art not yet nascent at that time. ZERO art naturally owes some of its impetus to the freedom in Dada but instead of espousing "anarchy" as an ideal chose a more positive platform to construct the future. The refined teutonic sense of design that is so prominent today in many products can find its roots in the ZERO project and the art created by its many affiliate practitioners.
In a sense, ZERO art emerges from the urge to invent objects that are meant to symbolize the shining future and the freedom that new future might offer in which to create a state-of-the-art hand crafted world. These objects are constructed for the most part from modern materials like glass, steel and plastic often combined with moving parts, motors and lights. They are harbingers of the art objects and installations that we now take as commonplace in galleries and museums everywhere minus of course the video and digital computer art not yet nascent at that time. ZERO art naturally owes some of its impetus to the freedom in Dada but instead of espousing "anarchy" as an ideal chose a more positive platform to construct the future. The refined teutonic sense of design that is so prominent today in many products can find its roots in the ZERO project and the art created by its many affiliate practitioners.
"Art is no longer the act of viewing a finished object; art has become a living process. It is realized in the empty human being. The picture itself has no meaning; it is merely a stimulus for the visualization of an idea, of an impulse."
Günther Uecker, 1965
Günther Uecker, 1965
R72-13 - 1972 - Jan Schoonhoven If we look carefully at the lineup of artists who were to align themselves with the group over more than a decade we see an all star cast. Yves Klein was a major influence on Piene and Mack after they saw an exhibition of his blue monochromes in Dusseldorf in 1957. This show became the impetus for the formulation of a ZERO creed in which new aims were formulated for a new territory for art as exemplified in what they described as Mondrian's "zone of pure silence for the possibility of a new beginning." The Italian Lucio Fontana worked closely with and became a surrogate father for the Germans mostly from behind the scenes while Piero Manzoni was also active, traveling extensively between the group's happenings and events building connections. Jan Schoonhoven from Holland whose work i really admire was also a part of the group that included Jean Tinguely, Daniel Spoerri, groundbreaking Gutai artists Saburo Murakami and Shozo Shimamoto from Japan as well as Nanda Vigo and Dieter Roth. Yayoi Kusama was also loosely affiliated with the group as were a number of Latin artists such as the excellent Venezuelan artist Jesus Rafael Soto. Although ZERO never had a binding manifesto they did issue statements and directives which all the artists inherently agreed with.
ZERO finally entered the American consciousness in 1965 when two shows were held in New York and were written about favorably by Donald Judd who declared,
"Since the United States is relatively inattentive to new European developments, this is the first Zero exhibition here" and further, that Mack, Piene and Uecker were, "all able and convincing."
"Since the United States is relatively inattentive to new European developments, this is the first Zero exhibition here" and further, that Mack, Piene and Uecker were, "all able and convincing."
By this he put his stamp of approval on what Zero had set out to accomplish. Many artists had already taken a reactionary stance against the dominance of Abstract Expressionism in the USA and Tachisme and Art Informel in Europe. Zero is only now being reassessed as to its international importance for the huge changes that were ushered in during the late 50's and early 60's in global art through this dynamic working collaboration by artists of ethnic diversity yet singularity of philosophy. Even though there were other art movements working contiguously to ZERO like Minimalism, Arte Povera and Fluxus, many of those artists involved were working closely with the ZERO collective of artists.
I'm inspired by ZERO because of the youthful idealistic naivety that the artists were willing to embrace for the sake of attaining their goals. Today it's easy to be cynical and indeed, suspicious, of anyone spouting visions of utopia in a world mired in warfare, poverty, division and fiscal inequity. Yet at times in human history certain individuals were courageous enough to offer a hope that (as crazy as it looked and as unattainable as it may have seemed), maybe the future could be different from the bloody past. Art as a collective activity can offer hope because it is non partisan and conducive to the possibilities inherent in humanity's "creative" urge!
I'm inspired by ZERO because of the youthful idealistic naivety that the artists were willing to embrace for the sake of attaining their goals. Today it's easy to be cynical and indeed, suspicious, of anyone spouting visions of utopia in a world mired in warfare, poverty, division and fiscal inequity. Yet at times in human history certain individuals were courageous enough to offer a hope that (as crazy as it looked and as unattainable as it may have seemed), maybe the future could be different from the bloody past. Art as a collective activity can offer hope because it is non partisan and conducive to the possibilities inherent in humanity's "creative" urge!
