Otto Piene

Piene was innovative in his work from the very beginning, examining the possibilities for correlation between nature, art, and technology. He founded the ZERO group with his friend Heinz Mack in 1958, and they were joined by Günther Uecker three years later. The three are considered the most internationally influential artists of the post-war era until this day. Piene created his first “Rasterbilder” (grid pictures) in 1957, and he began with his “Rauch- und Feuerbilder” (smoke and fire pictures) shortly after. He also expanded his repertoire beyond works on canvas, exploring “archaic, mechanical, and automatic light ballets”, the dynamic convergences of light and movement. In his monumental Sky Art projects, Piene experimented with the appropriation of nature as a means of artistic expression (for example in the “Regenbogen” (rainbow) during the closing ceremony of the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich).  

Piene’s professorship in Pennsylvania

Otto Piene relocated to the USA in 1964, where he accepted an honorary professorship from the University of Pennsylvania. During his tenure as a lecturer at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies des Massachusetts Institute of Technology (CAVS/MIT) in Cambridge he was further able to explore and develop the multi-media qualities of his art. His goal there was to create a synthesis of man and nature through a cooperation between artists, scientists, and engineers and the use of new technologies such as computers and lasers. He was director of the CAVS from 1974 – 1994. Piene’s works can be seen exhibited in numerous large museums and collections, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffallo), the Folkwang-Museum (Essen), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), and the National Museum of Modern Art (Tokyo). Today, the artist lives and works in Groton, Massachusetts and Düsseldorf.