Otto Piene

Otto Piene was known for his experimental approach, driven by unconventional art materials and techniques. His most renowned creations were smoke and fire paintings (Rauchbilder). Piene applied a solvent to pigmented paper and ignited it, creating organic images formed by the residual soot.

Biography of Otto Piene

Otto Piene (b. 1928 in Bad Laasphe - d. 2014 in Berlin, Germany) received his education at the Academy of Art in Munich and later, in the late 1950s, at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he crossed paths with Heinz Mack. Together, they co-founded the influential Group Zero in 1957. ZERO, in contrast to Abstract Expressionism, emphasized art devoid of color, emotion, and individual expression.

In 1968, Piene became the first fellow at the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies. He later served as its director from 1974 to 1993. In 1996, the artist received one of the four annual prizes for artists from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In 2008, Piene co-founded the international ZERO foundation with Günther Uecker, Heinz Mack, and Mattijs Visser. The foundation houses archives from the three Düsseldorf-based ZERO group artists, along with documents and photos from other related artists such as Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein, and Jean Tinguely.

Piene's art can be found in numerous museum collections worldwide, including The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. In 2014, the Guggenheim Museum in New York presented a comprehensive historical survey of the ZERO group's work.

The art style and artworks of Otto Piene

In 1957, the artist pioneered the Grid Picture, a type of stenciled painting created using halftone screens featuring regularly arranged points in single colors like yellow, silver, white, or gold. These works, first exhibited in September 1957 at an evening exhibition in Piene's Düsseldorf studio, featured a vibrating pattern and subtle shadows, seemingly exploring the play of light itself. Their objectivity stemmed from the absence of subjective painterly gestures.

These "raster" (grid) works served as inspiration for "The Light Ballet," a series of sculptural installations in which light was projected from moving torches through grids, creating a dance-like effect on the wall.

Simultaneously, combining these grids with sources of fire, such as candles and gas burners, produced smoke traces and fire paintings, where the paint itself was burnt.

In 1962, Piene produced the Black Sun paintings and the Fauna and Flora paintings, explicitly referencing the theme of nature. This exploration culminated in 1967 with Piene's involvement in 'Sky Art,' a term he coined in 1969, enabling him to use landscapes and cities as the focal points of his work. In 1972, he created the Olympic Rainbow for the XX Olympiad in Munich, consisting of five differently colored helium-filled polythene tubes, each spanning 600 meters.

Starting in 1998, he ventured into immersive light rooms, utilizing projections to manipulate light intensity, color, and form in various museums, including the Kunsthalle Bremen. The artist's technological exploration of light extended to holograms, lasers, and strobing.