“Zero is the beginning, Zero is silence, Zero flows, Zero is Zero” – this is how Heinz Mack and Otto Piene described an art in 1963 that was to bring light and optimism back into the world after the dark years of National Socialism and the war. Their works were to be puristic, bright, floating, moving, profound and full of energy. Together with artists such as Günther Uecker, Gotthard Graubner, Yves Klein, Roman Opalka and Jean Tinguely, they believed that art could speak directly to and touch everyone without telling a story or depicting a section of reality.
Sixty years later, ZERO has long since gone down in history and is at home in all major museums. The world's most important and largest ZERO collection, with almost 500 works, is the private Lenz Schönberg Collection – assembled over many decades by Gerhard and Anna Lenz out of a passion for art and in a friendly dialog with the artists. The guiding principle was the forward-looking idea that ZERO should be understood as a European movement.
After a major international tour a few years earlier, a selection of around 70 top-class loans were on display at the Kunstmuseum Ahlen, allowing a review from today's perspective. What special quality does ZERO develop today, in the age of digitalization? What individual experiences are revealed by quiet contemplation, by focusing? What potential for joy can be found in the works and how can it be reactivated in a time of crisis?
With works by:
Armand | Aubertin | Hermann Bartels | Václav Boštík |Enrico Castellani |Piero Dorazio |Luciano Fontana |Hermann Goepfert | Gotthard Graubner | Oskar Holweck | Yves Klein | Walter Leblanc | Heinz Mack | Piero Manzoni | Christian Megert | François Morellet | Roman Opalka | Otto Piene | Arnulf Rainer | Bridget Riley | Jan Jacobus Schoonhoven | Turi Simeti | Jean Tinguely | Günther Uecker | Victor Vasarely | Jef Verheyen | Hermann de Vries
