
© Estate of Otto Piene / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Germany
Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.

© Estate of Otto Piene / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Germany
Image downloads are for educational use only. For all other purposes, please see our Obtaining and Using Images page.


Otto Piene
German, 1928-2014
Any Fire Flower, 1964
oil on canvas
support: 30 x 40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm)
Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Gift of Seymour H. Knox, Jr., 1965
K1965:7
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Information may change due to ongoing research.Glossary of Terms
The members of the ZERO group often experimented with or referenced natural elements such as light, movement, fire, and water in their work. A cofounder of this collaborative, Otto Piene developed new art forms, among them media art and performance, over the course of a nearly sixty-year career. For him, the sky was a canvas, and paintbrushes were flames. To create Any Fire Flower, Piene painted his canvas with flammable pigments, which he then ignited. It came out of a series of related works, called “Black Suns,” in which he painted with soot left behind by bundles of candles directed at specially prepared canvases.
Label from Giant Steps: Artists and the 1960s, June 30–December 30, 2018
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