Otto Piene: More Sky

With around 60 artworks, the exhibition “Otto Piene. More Sky” at the Deutsche Bank KunstHalle ( is dedicated to the broad spectrum of Otto Piene’s early work.

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The show revolves around the main works of the Zero years, which are presented here not as the endpoint of Piene’s creative oeuvre, but as the departure point for a development in art that had far-reaching consequences.

Early light prints and graphic works, evocative smoke and fire paintings, and light sculptures, some of which are part of the Deutsche Bank Collection, highlight the artist’s incorporation of the elements air, fire, and light. A light room that the artist has arranged in a new way emphasizes the magical, meditative aspect of these approaches.

Exemplary documentation on the projects developed at the CAVS also draws attention to the dissolution of art’s borders, an endeavor Piene was increasingly
focused on. His rainbow motifs can be considered signs for the particular connection to nature and early ecological awareness that influenced the structures and forms of many of his Sky Art Events after 1968. In a dense interplay of devices, paintings, prints, photographs, films, and installations, the exhibition demonstrates the wide variety of media the artist worked in simultaneously after 1970.

01 / 06

Otto Piene, Hot Mountain, 1964/74. Oil, fire and hay on canvas. Permanent loan of ZKM Karlsruhe, Private collection South Germany. Photo: bpk / Roman März, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2014

BPK 100.581

Otto Piene, Light Room, 1961–99.diverse materials, measurements variable Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie. Acquired partly with funds of the state of Berlin and the estate of the Renée Sintenis foundation. Photo: Günter Thorn, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2014

BPK 100.532

Left: Otto Piene, Addis Abeba, 1972. Silkscreen on cardboard Deutsche Bank Collection. Photo © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2014. Right: Otto Piene, Untitled, 1962. Oil and soot on canvas. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie. Purchased by the federal state of Berlin. Photo: bpk / Jörg P. Anders, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2014

Otto Piene, Olympic Rainbow, 1972. Lithography. Deutsche Bank Collection. Photo: Mathias Schormann, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2014

BPK 45.426

Otto Piene, SolOEil, 1958. Oil on canvas. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie. Photo: bpk / Jörg P. Anders, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2014

Otto Piene, Opening Program "The Proliferation of the Sun ", 1966–67, 25-minute performance with hand-painted glass slides, sound, and five Carousel projectors, Galerie Art Intermedia, Cologne, Germany, 1967. Photo © Walter Vogel

until August 31, 2014
Otto Piene
More Sky
Deutsche Bank KunstHalle
Unter den Linden 13/15, Berlin

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