Honey Moon, 2000

Painting in oil, fire and soot on canvas

Dimensions: 67.80 x 96 cm

Art and nature are often cited as opponents in discussions of principles. Not so with Otto Piene: he makes nature the co-author of his artistic works. Piene engages in a collaboration with the elements, creates not only analogue, earthy works from fire and soot, but also suggests cosmic natural processes. This development conforms to the declared intention of a "reharmonisation of the relationship between man and nature", according to Piene in 1958 in the ZERO magazine he co-edited.

Otto Piene was born in 1928 in Laasphe, Westphalia, and studied art and philosophy in Munich and Düsseldorf. In the 1960s, as a co-founder of the international ZERO movement, he played a decisive role in the expansion of classical art forms. His open conception of art continues to make his works relevant to current discourse.