Otto Piene (1928–2014) ranks among the pioneers
of twentieth-century art. As a co-founder of the
ZERO movement he joined Heinz Mack and Günther
Uecker on their quest for an art unencumbered by
the horrors of the Second World War. Piene created
works that fundamentally transformed classical
perceptions of sculpture and painting, most notably
in his “grid pictures” his smoke- and fire-scorched
paintings, his “light ballets” and, later, his “sky
art”. His experiments with light, air and fire took
him to MIT in Boston, where from the late 1960s
onwards he was engaged in teaching and research
at the interface of art and technology.
Piene’s ceramics take the grid pictures and fire
paintings to a new level. The textured surface of the
glaze pressed onto them through a screen makes
for an interesting play of light. The works are also
defined by the arbitrariness of the firing process
inside the kiln, which might easily have destroyed
them.
The two unique but affiliated ceramics that here
are being auctioned off as a pair were created by
Piene for an exhibition at the Nationalgalerie in
Berlin in July 2014, shortly before his death. They
therefore count among his last works.
Gold, glaze on clay
63 × 63 × 3 cm
#685 and #692 in the catalogue raisonné
of Otto Piene’s ceramics
Copyright: Otto Piene Trust
Courtesy: Elizabeth Goldring Piene, Otto Piene Trust
Provenance: donated by the Otto Piene Trust
