Otto PIENNE (1928-2014)

Untitled, 1966 Gouache and soot on cardboard, signed and dated 66 lower right 68 x 96 cm Provenance : - German Collection - French Collection Born in 1928 in Bad Laasphe, between Cologne and Cassel, Otto Piene studied art in Munich and Düsseldorf, then philosophy in Cologne. In 1957, together with Heinz Mack, he founded the Zero Group, to which Günther Uecker, Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni contributed, with the aim of bringing a new spirituality to the modern world through an emulation between art, architecture and science. His approach, between conceptual art, land art and minimalism, combines work on light, movement and emptiness. In the 1960s, Otto Piene developed the concept of Sky Art, in which scientists, artists and amateurs work together to build helium-filled flying works. Director of the Center of Advanced Visual Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1974, Otto Piene was committed to an art form that served the common good and scientific progress. Benoit Lafay