Otto Piene

Private Collection, Belgium
Private Collection, Belgium (acquired directly from the above in the 1970s)
Thence by descent to the present owner

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the red is brighter and more vibrant in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is some evidence of wear and rubbing along the outer edges. Very close inspection reveals a few minute media accretions and faint rub marks in isolated places. There is some very light canvas draw to all four corners, and the lower left corner is very slightly warped. Close inspection reveals some unobtrusive hairline cracks in the black soot and in isolated places to the red, and a small number of specks of loss towards the edges of the soot. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
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Set against an intensely red background, the five deep black fire marks of 26th Attempt To Burn The Night stand as a powerful reminder to the innovative practice of Otto Piene, one of the founders of the influential ZERO movement that was the subject of the recent ZERO: Countdown to Tomorrow, 1950s-60s exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. With its abstract aesthetic and unorthodox mode of production, the work perfectly embodies the zeitgeist of a generation of artists who would radically change the landscape of European art through an innovative and experimental approach to art-making. 

Executed in 1960, three years after the ZERO movement was founded, 26th Attempt To Burn The Night encapsulates all the energy and free-spirited experimentation that characterises the work of Otto Piene, as well as the other ZERO artists such as Heinz Mack and Günther Uecker. Having graduated in 1957 with degrees in both philosophy and art, Piene’s revolutionary work of the late 1950s and early 1960s responded not only to the expressive art informel painting of the previous generation, but also to the status quo in society at large. As the shadow of the catastrophic post-war years waned, Piene and his contemporaries embraced an increasingly optimistic outlook and with the founding of the ZERO movement in 1957, aspired to set the tone for a new order that would reverberate throughout Europe. As the artist compellingly summarised himself: “Zero is the incommensurable zone in which the old state turns into the new” (Otto Piene, ‘Die Entstehung der Gruppe ‘Zero’’, The Times Literary Supplement, 3 September 1964).

26th Attempt To Burn The Night, which the artist created by literally burning the canvas, perfectly captures the group’s interest in an emphasis on pure colour through the creation of monochromatic works, as well as their daring and experimental approach to the canvas which revolutionised the post-war European avant-garde. The result is an elegantly simple image, in which the raw surface of the burned soot is contrasted with the vibrant red of the monochrome canvas, capturing a radical departure from art informel painting in form and execution and making this an outstanding work from one of the most influential post-war periods in art history.