Otto Piene

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Otto Piene at an event of the ZERO foundation 2009 in Düsseldorf

Otto Piene (born April 18, 1928 in Laasphe ; † July 17, 2014 in Berlin ) was a German artist and co-founder of the artist group ZERO . He is considered to be a pioneer of light and fire art as well as sky art actions.

Life

Otto Piene in the late 1960s. Photo by Lothar Wolleh

Otto Piene was born in Laasphe, where his father was the founding headmaster of the Laaspher Gymnasium, and grew up in Lübbecke . After graduating from high school in 1947, he studied painting and art education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 1949 to 1950 and at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf from 1950 to 1953 . Between 1951 and 1964 he worked as a lecturer at the fashion school in Düsseldorf. From 1953 to 1957 he occupied at the University of Cologne the degree program philosophy and graduated with a state examination. As a reaction to the abstract Informel , Piene and Heinz Mack founded the later internationally influential artist group ZERO (“Zero Point of Art”) in Düsseldorf on April 11, 1957 , which Günther Uecker also joined in 1961 .

At the University of Pennsylvania , he took on a visiting professorship in 1964. From 1968 to 1971 he was a fellow of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) founded by Gyorgy Kepes in 1967 . In 1971, he turned down the call to a chair at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart . In 1972 he became Professor of Visual Design for Environmental Art at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , which appointed him director of CAVS in 1974, which he headed until 1994.

In December 2008, Piene co-founded the ZERO foundation together with Heinz Mack, Günther Uecker and the Museum Kunstpalast Foundation. The artists donated 40 works as well as their archives from the ZERO period with photographs and documents. The state capital Düsseldorf supports the foundation over a period of 30 years.

Otto Piene was a member of the German Association of Artists . Most recently he lived and worked in Groton / Massachusetts , Boston and Düsseldorf . On July 17, 2014, he died while driving a taxi in Berlin, where he was staying on the occasion of the opening of an exhibition on his work in the Neue Nationalgalerie .

plant

Otto Piene Geleucht with light installation on the Moers Halde Rheinpreußen
Otto Piene, glass roof, 1970, University of Konstanz

The predominant idea when the group "ZERO" was founded was a complete new beginning in painting starting from the level "zero" and the inclusion in the artistic creation of light (and shadow) and - for Piene - also of fire. Mack and Piene disseminated their views in the magazine "ZERO" until 1961.

In 1959, Piene designed light ballets and smoke images with reference to elementary natural energies . The traces of fire and smoke are important elements of these works. He also experimented with multimedia combinations (1960). Piene is particularly known for his light ballet and other light kinetic works. He also created air and light sculptures due to his intensive engagement with light and movement .

One of the well-known work cycles by Otto Piene is entitled “Blue Planet / Blauer Planet”. Piene is committed to the preservation of our blue planet by demanding: “Keep the Blue Planet green! / The Blue Planet should stay green! ”Up until 2009, Otto Piene created the unique trophy of the International Blue Planet Awards from the ethecon Foundation (ethics and economy) on the basis of this motto .

Awards

Exhibitions (selection)

A catalog was published for the exhibitions marked with "K".

Works (selection)

Kinetic plastic light and movement at the Wormland House, Cologne
Star Pit in Cologne's Mediapark
  • 1958: Hell Gelb Hell , oil on canvas, 68.5 × 96.5 cm, Münster, LWL State Museum for Art and Cultural History
  • 1969: Dynamic volume , oil, smoke and fire on canvas, 109.5 × 109 cm.
  • 1963: Untitled . Oil, soot and coal particles on canvas, 84.5 × 99.5 cm.
  • 1964/65: Light objects for the opera house in Bonn
  • 1966: Electronically programmable kinetic light sculpture "Light and Movement" at the Wormland House, Hohe Straße 124–126, Cologne
  • 1967: Design of the German pavilion at the Venice Biennale
  • 1969/71: Light objects for the “Chambre des Représentants”, Hawaii , Honolulu
  • 1971: Design of the German pavilion at the Biennale di Venezia
  • 1972: More Sky , light installations and fire pictures for the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games , Munich, including the "Olympic Rainbow"
  • 1992: Star Pit , fountain in the Mediapark , water and light sculpture, Cologne
  • 1994: Prism dome, Schadow-Arkaden , Düsseldorf
  • 2006: Geluchten , light installation, tower in the form of a miner's lamp (height 30 meters) and 35 light masts to illuminate an 8000 m² area of ​​a dump with red light, Moers , dump Rhine Prussia

literature

  • Introduction by Wieland Schmied : Mack, Piene, Uecker O - ZERO . Exhibition catalog for the exhibition in the Kestner Society. Hanover 1965.
  • Karl Ruhrberg (Ed.): Zeitzeichen. Stations in fine arts in North Rhine-Westphalia . DuMont, Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-7701-2314-X .
  • Susanne Rennert, Stephan von Wiese (eds.): Otto Piene - Sky Art 1968–1996. Wienand, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-87909-611-2 .
  • Heinz-Norbert Jocks: The ear at the crime scene, Heinz-Norbert Jocks in conversation with Gotthard Graubner, Heinz Mack, Roman Opalka, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker . Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2009, ISBN 978-3-7757-2509-5 .
  • Jürgen Claus : Otto Piene. In: love art. An autobiography in twenty-one encounters. Kerber, Bielefeld 2013, ISBN 978-3-86678-788-9 , pp. 64-77.
  • Gottfried Knapp: Master of the original elements. Get out of the studio! - Otto Piene has died. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. 19./20. July 2014, p. 12.
  • Ursula Zeller : Otto Piene - memory of a conversation. In: ZERO - Between Heaven and Earth. Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen 2014, ISBN 978-3-88423-502-7 , p. 11 ff.

Web links

Commons : Otto Piene  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiversity: work example  - course materials

Individual evidence

  1. Otto Piene. City of Bad Laasphe, accessed on June 19, 2016 .
  2. Wolfgang Kermer : "1968" and the reform of the academy: From the student unrest to the reorganization of the Stuttgart Academy in the 1970s . (= Contributions to the history of the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart . 9). Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern / Ruit 1998, ISBN 3-89322-446-7 , p. 11.
  3. foundation ZERO foundation , glashaus-magazin.de, accessed on July 18, 2014.
  4. kuenstlerbund.de: Full members of the German Association of Artists since it was founded in 1903 / Piene, Otto ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed December 9, 2015)
  5. Otto Piene is dead , zeit.de, July 18, 2014, accessed on July 18, 2014.
  6. Press release of the ethecon foundation on the death of Otto Piene
  7. Merit holders since 1986. State Chancellery of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on March 11, 2017 .
  8. Announcement of awards of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. From October 5, 1989. In: Bundesanzeiger , vol. 41, no. 195, p. 4897 , issued on Saturday, October 14, 1989.
  9. ^ Otto Piene Leonardo da Vinci World Award of Arts 2003 ( Memento from November 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ). World Culture Council, Mexico City
  10. Hamburger Abendblatt , January 7, 2014, p. 17.
  11. s. Catalog Large Art Exhibition Munich 1963 : cat.no. 784–786, Piene, Otto, Düsseldorf: I like this flower , special technique, 130 × 100 cm; Düsseldorf , oil and smoke, 130 × 100 cm, with ill .; Watercolor , 49 × 72 cm
  12. ^ Announcement on the exhibition , accessed on July 14, 2014.
  13. ^ Museum Ludwig (ed.): Sculpture in Cologne . 20th century images in the cityscape. Cologne 1988, p. 161 .
  14. Helmut Fußbroich: Star Pit in the Sculpture Guide Cologne ( Memento from April 30, 2015 in the Internet Archive )