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PostWar & Contemporary
3433 OTTO PIENE(Laasphe 1928 - 2014 Berlin)
Untitled. 1966.
Watercolour and gouache on cardboard.
Signed and dated upper centre: Piene 66.
50 x 70 cm.
Provenance: Directly acquired from the
artist, since then private collection Swit-
zerland.
Instead of with colour and paint brush,
Otto Piene, one of the most important
protagonists of the international ZERO
movement, experiments with alternative
artistic means and makes use of natural
elements such as light, movement, wind,
fire, air and energy since the 60’s. In this
way Otto Piene interprets art, through in-
corporating natural scientific findings and
an intensive connection of art, technology
and nature, as an energetic phenomenon.
For him it is about “re-harmonising the
relationship between man and nature”.
In light of this ideal, Piene brings to perfec-
tion his famous fire technique, in which the
work presented here was created in 1966.
In a highly aesthetically refined manner the
fire-blossom at the centre of the work, is
dynamically cut by an arch. Piene reaches
this creative process with help of fire,
whereby the colours gel in the space of its
short burning cycle. After the fire has ex-
pired the autonomously created sculpture
is fixated, thus the organic becoming of
nature is confronted with the artistic inter-
vention of various techniques and leads to
a synthesis. The destructive traces of the
fire form residues in numerous shades of
colour and modifications, as in our work,
over which the artist has only a limited
degree of influence. The significance of
chance is always an important part of the
picture for Piene: “I must admit, that I am
always happiest with my work, when it has
taken a surprising turn” (Otto Piene).
The gouache offered here captivates
through its extraordinary composition
and harmony of colours. The yellow fire-
blossom seems to grow out of the lower
margin, unfolds itself to its full width and is
nicely accentuated by the red arch at the
lower edge. Hardly an artist of the 20th
century has given himself over to experi-
mentation, the transboundary trials to turn
elements of nature into art, and created
such an outstanding oeuvre.
CHF 12 000 / 18 000
(€ 11 110 / 16 670)