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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

More Details

Inscriptions

signature / none

Class

Paintings

Work Type

Oil painting

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