Zero & Gutai

Historical Overview & Practice

The Zero Group

The ZERO Group was formed in Düsseldorf in 1957, initially by Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, and later joined by Günther Uecker. The movement spread to other European countries, before evolving into one of the most significant avant-garde movements of the 20th Century.

The group's ambition was to make a radical departure from traditional painting techniques and subjective, Post-War movements. Their ideology was to create art that was purely about the works' materials - which encompassed a diverse range of media such as painting, sculpture, works on paper, installations and photography. Despite having developed independent, aesthetic practices, the ZERO artists shared an interest in the relationships between art, nature and technology through the dynamics of colour and light, which they believed opened up new forms of perception.

Exhibitions & Happenings

Without a manifesto or strict membership, ZERO had no simple, linear chronology but consisted of a series of opportunities and encounters which gave rise to magazines, exhibitions, and events. There was no gallery system in Post-War Germany, so the artists created many of the exhibitions themselves. As a result, Mack and Piene created their own means of promotion through pop-up exhibitions, the first of which was held in Piene's Düsseldorf studio in April 1957. Over the course of the decade, artists such as Yves Klein, Piero Manzoni, Lucio Fontana, among others, would closely collaborate with the group as they strived for a radical and ambitious new visual vocabulary.

This radical aesthetic was further cemented in 1959, with the exhibition Vision in Motion – Motion in Vision  in Belgium, organised by artists that included Paul Van Hoeydonck. The exhibition was a critical moment of discovery for the ZERO artists and the first major showing of works that brought together Mack, Piene, Yves Klein, Paul Van Hoeydonck, Pol Bury and Daniel Spoerri, among others, for the very first time. It was considered to have best displayed the international face of the ZERO movement.

An International Movement

During the sixties various ZERO related movements came into being all over the world. The legendary art collective Nul group was formed in Amsterdam in 1961 and sought to revolutionise Dutch art, allying themselves with the ZERO group, the Nouveaux Réalistes and the Gutai group. They collaborated on manifestos, social happenings, publications, and individually produced minimalist sculptures and installations, which they exhibited collectively.

Similarly, Gutai , the Japanese avant-garde group formed in 1954 was closely associated with ZERO. Gutai explored new art forms combining performance, painting, and interactive environments, realising a common ground of experimental art through their exhibition and publication activities in the 1960s and 1970s.