Otto Piene

*1928 in Laasphe – 2014 in Berlin

The renewal of art with fire and light

Together with Heinz Mack, Otto Piene founded the avant-garde group ZERO in Düsseldorf in 1957. The name symbolizes a “zero point in art” and refers to a completely new beginning in painting. Light and shadow, and in Piene’s case also the element of fire, were incorporated into his artistic work.

In 1959, Piene began to create light ballets and smoke pictures, referring to elementary natural energies. The traces of fire and smoke have been a defining element of his works ever since. He also experimented with multimedia combinations and light-kinetic works and created new air and light sculptures in an intensive exploration of light and movement. His giant plastic rainbow, which the multiple Documenta participant launched into the sky at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, became famous.

Piene – one of the most important German modern artists

In the mid-1970s, Piene emigrated to the USA, where he headed a media laboratory for artistic-optical experiments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) in Boston for 20 years and was appointed Professor of Visual Design for Environmental Art. In 2008, Otto Piene founded the ZERO Foundation together with Heinz Mack, Günther Uecker and the Museum Kunstpalast Foundation in Düsseldorf. On July 17, 2014, he died in Berlin immediately after the opening of the largest retrospective of his works to date, exhibited at the Neue Nationalgalerie. The artist did not live to see the subsequent internationally acclaimed ZERO exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Otto Piene is still regarded today as one of the great innovators in art and one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.

Auszeichnungen und Ehrungen

1968:

– Konrad-von-Soest Prize, Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Germany

1989:

– Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany, Germany

1994:

– Honorary doctorate as Doctor of Fine Arts, University of Maryland, USA

1996:

– Sculpture Prize, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, USA

2003:

– Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts of the World Cultural Council, Mexico City, Mexico

2008:

– Prizewinner for Fine Arts, Cultural Foundation Dortmund, Germany
– Grand Culture Prize, Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Rheinland, Germany

2013:

– Max Beckmann Prize, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

2014:

– First German Light Art Prize, Kunstmuseum Celle, Germany

Ausstellungen und Kunstmessen:

1959:

– documenta II, Kassel, Germany

1964:

– documenta 3, Kassel, Germany

1964:

– Wise Gallery, New York, USA

1965:

– Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover, Germany

1977:

– documenta 6, Kassel, Germany

1985:

– Biennale in São Paulo, Brazil

1996:

– Artmueseum Düsseldorf Ehrenhof, Düsseldorf, Germany

2001:

– Artmuseum Celle, Sammlung Robert Simon, Celle, Germany

2008:

– Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany

2010:

– Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Düren, Germany

2014:

– Neue Nationalgalerie, Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, Berlin, Germany
– Langen Foundation, Neuss, Germany
– Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA

2015:

– Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
– LWL Museum for art and culture, Münster, Germany

2019:

– Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen, Germany
– Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany

2020:

– Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich, Switzerland

Biography

Otto Piene (born in Laasphe in 1928 and died in Berlin in 2014) is considered one of the great avant-gardists of post-war German art. With the founding of the Zero Group, he helped German post-war art to achieve international recognition. Unlikely to other artist, his work was characterized by experimentation and cross-border experiments in art. Piene’s smoke paintings, fire paintings, light installations and inflatable sky sculptures were particularly characteristic of his work.

“I must confess that I was always happiest in my work when it took a surprising turn.” – Otto Piene