22.10.2016 – 29.1.2017

Der Kontinent, den die EU nicht kennt.

Die Kunstentwicklung in Europa nach 1945 Ein neues Narrativ in zehn Phasen

The Development of Art in Europe after 1945 A New Narrative in Ten Phases

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe Phase 1 are smashed, burnt, and slashed. Phase 8 Trauma and Remembrance As a prisoner of trauma, art be­ Action Art The end of the Second World comes a reaction formation (Anna Art liberates itself from War left Europe at the “degree Freud). The auto-destruction of representation in three stages: zero” of meaning and being. The the representational becomes 1. Action painting, i.e. a painter’s efforts of European art to free a trend-setting artistic method in actions performed on a horizontal itself from the trauma of destruction sculpture and painting, literature, canvas. 2. Show painting, i. e. a (world war, Holocaust, Gulag, music, and film. painter’s action before a canvas, nuclear bomb) progress, through on a stage and before an audience. a number of phases. The represen­ Phase 5 3. A painter’s action without a tation of ravaged houses and New Realism, or from Represen- canvas, before an audience. In action human bodies is initially premod­ tation to Reality art, the focus is on the artist as ern, i. e. figurative, in the form The refusal and prohibition a performer. The artist’s actions, of Schmerzensbilder [pain images of representation (T.W. Adorno) demonstrations, happenings, and and sculptures]. drew a determined reply from Raul performances, in combination Hilberg – the insistence on object- with the audience’s participation Phase 2 centered reality. The phase of escape and actions, mark the beginning of Abstraction from trauma begins with the escape the performative turn in fine art. The crisis of representation from the image. In art, everything and the uncertainty whether the that had been representation was, Phase 9 horror of barbarism could even step by step, replaced with reality. A Concept Art be portrayed figuratively bring forth dialogue with real things constitutes The material phase of art is abstraction, in painting and sculp­ the art direction of new realism, followed by the tendency of immate­ ture. Informel and tachisme are which also declares everyday objects rialization. Action instructions examples of this reduction, focused eligible as art. Thus, the mass media for the audience replace action. A on the self-representation of the and mass production became description of an exhibition becomes means of representation, which are sources of pop art. the exhibition, art commentary it­ dis­torted and distressed. Phases 1 self becomes art, linguistic analyses and 2 are subject-centered expres­ Phase 6 become pictorial forms. From visual sion art. New Visions and Tendencies poetry to story art, a text-based The breaks with the historical media art arises – consisting of photo­ Phase 3 means of representation and expres­ graphs, films, and neon tubes, Material Painting, or the Crisis sion were followed by departures combined with objects – creating of Easel Painting into zones of new methods, materials, new relationships between art and The tabula rasa includes the machines, and media – in an ex­ philosophy. Language becomes means of representation themselves. pansion of the arts. From moving the model, and instead of images, In the 1950s, the Italian material object to moving viewer, from kinetics conceptual writing reigns – in con­ painting substitutes iron, cement, to cybernetics, from op art to neo- cept art. It is an expression of the and gunny for canvas and oils. The constructivism and Arte Program­ linguistic turn in art. painting becomes an object. mata, art as research produces We see the degree zero of the new visual experiences presuppos­ ing­ Phase 10 easel painting. The picture vanishes, the participation of the audi­ence. Media Art the panel remains. Representation Movement machines are gives way to real materiality. During Phase 7 followed by the picture machine, i.e. the 1960s Arte Povera extends the New Forms of Interactivity the apparatus-driven moving picture polimaterici of material painting to The elements of art become in the various media: film, video, the spatial and installational. modules of variables. Through inter­ and computer. The era of media art vention, the viewer can change begins. It constitutes the sum of Phase 4 works physically. A work of art and the preceding representative and The Self-Destruction of the its creation becomes programmable, realistic strategies, while also open­ Means of Representation by analog or digital means. The ing the space of the imaginary and Culture has failed in the face of image becomes a form of action, as the virtual – and thus the space barbarianism. Experienced and does sculpture. Instead of works of of that yet to come. Participation observed real destruction are trans­ art we have instructions by the becomes interactivity. ferred to the means of representation artists, which position the audience themselves. Pianos, books, canvases in the focus. Peter Weibel

ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe Ausstellungsplan / floor plan Erdgeschoss / ground floor

EG / GF

Phase 1 5 Trauma und Erinnerung /

Trauma and Remembrance 1948–1950

Phase 2 1958–1961

Abstraktion / Abstraction 1951–1954 1 Phase 3 Materialmalerei / Material Painting 1955–1957 6 Phase 4 Selbstzerstörung der 2 3 1945–1947 Darstellungsmittel / The Self-Destruction of the Means of Representation

Phase 5 Neuer Realismus / New Realism 4

Phase 6

Neue Visionen und Tendenzen / Aufzug New Visions and Tendencies Elevator

Brauerstraße 1. Obergeschoss / first floor 1. OG / 1st. fl. 10 Phase 7 Handlungsformen der Kunst / New Forms of Interactivity 9 1966–1968 7 Phase 8 8 Aktionskunst / Action Art

Phase 9 1962–1965 Konzeptkunst / Concept Art

Phase 10 Medienkunst / Media Art

6

Aufzug Elevator

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe Pictures of Pain

In the middle of the war and during At the time, numerous artists wounded warrior falls to the the years thereafter, artists sought recurred to Christian Crucifixion ground. Moore manages to render and found a language for the suffer- iconography, including Graham the dramatic moment between life ing caused by the war, breaking the Sutherland and Alfred Hrdlicka. and death. The head presents, skull- silence of society. HAP Grieshaber named his large- like, only the empty eye sockets – In occupied Paris, in July 1942, format woodcut Schmerzensbild war having obliterated all its indi- Pablo Picasso began his preliminary [Pain Picture]. Like on a diptych, a vidual features. Alina Szapocznikow sketches for a personal protector mother and child in the tradition of displays an exhumed corpse, in all and defender figure in the tradition madonna depictions are confronted its brutality. of the good shepherd from the with a man, staring squarely fron- Roman catacombs. Picasso’s paint- tally out of the image, his medal- Eckhart Gillen ing Nu au divan [Nude on a Divan] decorated chest denoting his status shows an ashen-colored nude on as a soldier. Henry Moore‘s sculp- a coffin-like divan, reminiscent of ture Falling Warrior presents the a corpse in a crematorium. moment in which the mortally

1 Pablo Picasso, “2 studies Man 5 Graham Sutherland, “Crucifixion” with Lamb” 6 Alfred Hrdlicka, “Crucified” 2 Pablo Picasso, “Nu au divan” 7 HAP Grieshaber, “Schmerzens- 3 Henry Moore, “Falling Warrior” bild” 4 Alina Szapocznikow, “Sitting Person without Arms and Legs Leans Forward Slightly”

4

1 5

7 2 6 3

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe Ban on Mourning

Their obsession with progress dentures re-emerged in the accu- drove the Communist parties, in the mulations produced by Arman, Soviet Union and in their allied César, and other nouveaux réalistes. countries, to compel artists in their The West German govern ment sphere of influence to commit prevented the inclusion of the film themselves to shaping the future. in the official competition of the Resistance against this official ban 1956 Cannes Film Festival. on mourning came from such Polish artists as Marek Oberländer Eckhart Gillen and Andrzej Wróblewski. In 1949, Wróblewski painted a series of paintings on death by firing squad. The pictures were produced in preparation for an anti-war exhibition that Wróblewski and his Kraków art academy group were planning for that spring. The show 1 Marek Oberländer, was banned by the Communist “Silhouette on White Background” Party of Poland. 2 Andrzej Wróblewski, Six years later, in 1955, the “Execution Against a Wall” end of socialist realism in Poland 3 Vadim Sidur, “Treblinka” 1 was marked by an exhibition held 4 Alain Resnais, “Nuit et Brouillard” at the Warsaw Arsenal during the Fifth International Festival of Youth and Students. Against War, against 2 Fascism showcased the works of 3 such young artists as Marek Oberländer. In his 1961 painting Sylwetka na białym tle [Silhouette on a White Background], we see a totally wasted human body, whose chest lies gaping open like a cage, and whose twisted head resembles an extraterrestrial more than a human visage. Vadim Sidur’s sculpture Treblinka concretizes the Shoah pheno menon as an accumulation of corpses, stacked cross-wise and weighing on a still alive female figure braced below them. Alain Resnais’s film Night and Fog (Nuit et Brouillard), with music by Hanns Eisler, presents, for the first time, documentary footage 4 shot by a Soviet camera crew during

the liberation of Auschwitz Concen- 1945–1947 tration Camp, on 27 January 1945. The images of mountains of sorted clothing, suitcases, glasses, and

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe Homo Homini Lupus

In 1944, in German-occupied Paris, same year, Dutch painter Karel monochromatic material paintings Georges Rouault translated the Appel – like Constant, a member of and objects of sheet metal and Latin aphorism “Homo homini lupus”, the artist group CoBrA, a name plastics were a rebellion against the from Titus Maccius Plautus’s coined from the initials of the cities subjectivism of the Informel. It was comedy Asinaria, into an emblematic Copenhagen, Brussels and Amster- in this context, in 1962, that he image. The annihilation of human dam – painted a Paar [Couple], created the object Zwart prikkel- existence was the thematic focus reminiscent of his earlier adult- draad op zwart 1/62 [Black Barbed of Jean Fautrier’s series of works interrogating children in Vragende Wire on Black 1/62] by applying the Otages [Hostages]. In 1943, he was Kinderen [Asking Children], barbed wire he faced as a boy in a witness of shootings in occupied from 1948. Amersfoort, side by side, like the Paris. The Otages show the heads of During the German occupa- lines of an informal drawing, on a anonymous victims, which seem to tion, Dutch artist Armando spent black-painted wooden panel. weather and decay. his youth in the shadow of the police In his 1951 painting Vluchte - transit camp in Amersfoort. The Eckhart Gillen lingen [Displaced Persons], painted skull Tête Noire II [Black Constant, actually Constant Anton Head II] is his answer. In 1958, Nieuwenhuys, also dealt with the Armando joined the Nederlandse topic of displacement in Europe. The Informele Groep, whose

1 Armando, “Tête noire II” 2 Armando, “Zwart prikkeldraad op zwart” 1 2 3 Georges Rouault, “Homo homini lupus: Le pendu” 4 Jean Fautrier, “Otage No. 3” 5 Jean Fautrier, “Tête d’Otage” 3 6 Karel Appel, “Paar” 6 7 Constant, “Vluchtelingen” 4 7 5

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe Artistic Reflections on the Nuclear Trauma

The media images of a rising nuclear decision by the German CDU/CSU Menil Collection, Houston, reveals mushroom cloud became the symbol Government under the leadership what this was really about for Klein: of annihilation and nuclear hell, and of Konrad Adenauer to arm of the the shadows were intended as a warning sign of a threatening apo- German Federal Army with nuclear reminders of the possibility of total calypse. The shock of the nuclear weapons in 1958. The left panel annihilation, referencing the shadow bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Jupiter refers to the name of an images of the pulverized human by the American army also occupied American medium-range missile, bodies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. artists. The critical artistic reactions and the panel on the right, Matador, In 1960 Klein wrote: “The shadows ranged from figurative depictions to the name of the German cruise of Hiroshima in the wastes of the to abstract gestural pictures to the missiles. Hans Grundig was not able nuclear catastrophe, terrifying destruction of the materials of presen- to finish his triptych. While Götz evidence without doubt, but never- tation and the inclusion of reality explicitly referred to Christian theless evidence of the hope of in artistic productions. iconography – especially in the survival and the endurance of the In 1951, the Movimento Nucle- center panel U.D.Z. (Unter diesem body, even if only immaterial.” (Yves are was founded by Enrico Baj and Zeichen / under this sign) with a Klein, “Truth Becomes Reality,” in Sergio Dangelo in Milan, which on depiction in the shape of a cross – Overcoming the Problematics of Art: the one hand displayed a certain Grundig took European cultural The Writings of Yves Klein, trans. kind of fascination with the pheno- history as point of reference (for Klaus Ottman (Putnam, CT: Spring menon of nuclear science, but on the example, depictions of the Madonna Publications, 2007), p. 186).) other expressed fear of the conse- and mother and child motifs) in his quences of the use of nuclear power. figurative triptych, which shows Daria Mille Although the artists in this move- the end of humankind through a ment worked formally abstract and nuclear holocaust. gesturally, the nuclear art was Already towards the end of the distinguished from Informel by its 1950s, new and radical artistic more powerful force of expression. processes were invented through Through ecstatic gestures, the aim which the non-representable traumas was to create effects on canvas of war and annihilation could be analogous to the unleashed nuclear expressed, as well as the turn from explosion and processes. As in the subject-centered representation compositions by Enrico Baj and to object-centered reality and the Gianni Dova, the paint was thus destruction of the means of repre- thrown, dumped, poured and splash- sentation. For instance, the pioneer ed onto the canvasses with immense of the Informel in Croatia, the artist energy and actionist techniques Ivo Gattin, like the French artist to create spotting and shapeless Yves Klein, utilized fire to create his structures that expressed the devas- objects, which evoke the landscape tating potential of nuclear destruc- destroyed by a nuclear bomb explo- tion. The artist Remo Bianco used sion. Art was perceived as the result material techniques to express these of destruction. Yves Klein, who was concerns. fascinated by emptiness/absence Two triptychs by Hans Grundig and immateriality, used real bodies and the Informel artist K.O. Götz to create his Anthropometrics from dated 1958 stand for artistic inter- 1958. The body was not only used as rogation of the nuclear threat in “living paintbrush,” but also to East and West Germany. The triptych produce empty silhouettes within by Götz was created during the the picture. His Anthropometric climax of the protests against the Hiroshima (ANT 79), ca. 1961, in the

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe The Cold War

During the 1950s, the Cold War also in West and East, were such paint - conceivably be further from a col- impacted the fine arts. Abstraction, ings as Les Constructeurs [The lective road to happiness. Here, both in painting and sculpture, Construction Workers] by French the image of a brigade, as a model was considered an authentic expres- Communist Party member Fernand collective, becomes a parody of sion of artistic individuality and Léger, and Soviet artist Alexander socialist petit bourgeois culture. auto nomy, in the free West, while Deineka’s Builders. Deineka’s Meanwhile, Ralf Winkler, alias socialist realism stood for the col lec- paint ing is the design for a mosaic. A.R. Penck, a painter from Dresden, tive spirit of socialism. Under the We see the happy and handsome considered himself a modern so- leadership of the Soviet Union – and new Soviet citizen constructing cialist artist beyond the tradition with the aid of Picasso’s peace dove the future of the Soviet Union, of Rembrandt and Picasso. With his – the worldwide communist move- in har mony with unfettered nature. stick-figure art, he aimed to move ment launched the peace congresses Deineka’s image of con struction beyond the creation of illusion and world youth festivals with which was preceded by Fernand Léger’s and inquire into social forces and it would successfully expand its Constructeurs. Léger was inspired structures. In his 1963 painting influence, also in the West. by a cover (number 11, 1949) of Der Übergang [The Crossing], Penck Harald Metzkes’s 1956 paint- UdSSR na stroike [USSR in Con- offers a vivid portrayal of his own ing The tote Taube [The Dead Dove] struc tion] – the famous propaganda appraisal of his path across the is a reaction against the abrupt magazine published in several lan- chasm before him. As an artist in the termination of the brief “thaw” guages – showing a photograph totalitarian system of the GDR, he pe ri od, by the violent sup pression of construction work ers perched identifies with a tightrope walker of the Hungarian uprising. The high above Moscow’s Smolensk balancing across a burning bridge. dove, re produced a million fold as Square, in the steel skeleton of the the sym bol of the communist peace future Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Eckhart Gillen move ment, was thus defamed. Werner Tübke’s 1964 painting One symbol of the progress- Sozialistische Jugendbrigade focused optimism of those years, [Socialist Youth Brigade] could not

1 Picasso “Taube, blaue Variante” 2 Harald Metzkes, “Die tote Taube” 3 Fernand Léger, “Builders (Builders with aloe)” 4 Alexander Deineka, “Friedlicher Aufbau” 5 Werner Tübke, “Sozialistische Jugendbrigade” 6 A. R. Penck, “Der Übergang” 1 2 6 5 4 3

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe Memorial Competitions during the Cold War

Two competitions offer a striking to the Soviet Ehrenmal memorial, Cremer’s first design was example of how the arts were with its equally tall statue of a Soviet spurned by the Party newspaper enlisted by the antagonistic power soldier, with a child and lowered Neues Deutschland. After two further blocs in their struggle for ideolo- sword, on a destroyed swastica in designs, the third being a synthesis gical hegemony – the international East Berlin’s Treptower Park. But of the first and second model, the competition for a Monument to it never came to that. National Memorial was officially the Unknown Political Prisoner, The German competitors’ ded i cated by Chief Minister Otto initiated by the London Institute models were a succession of varia- Grotewohl on 14 September 1958. of Contemporary Art in 1952, and tions of the abstract figure of a the competition for a memorial at prison er, surrounded by bar-like Eckhart Gillen Buchenwald Concentration Camp. constructions (like in Bernhard A comparison of the two competition Heiliger’s model). procedures, of the respective For his sculpture group for winners, the sculptors Reg Butler the concentration camp memorial and Fritz Cremer – and of the very in Buchenwald near Weimar, different forms of artistic commem- Fritz Cremer developed three differ- oration involved – illustrates the ent versions between 1952 and its degree of divergence of artistic lan- dedi cation in 1958. As we can see guages and ideologies during the in this exhibition, the first version, Cold War. of 1952, is inspired by Auguste The young English sculptor Rodin’s nearly life-size figure group Reg Butler’s design was awarded The Burghers of Calais (Les Bour- the first prize. His model consisted geois de Calais), created from 1884 to of three elements: a rock as a 1895. In Fritz Cremer’s ren dition, 1 Bernhard Heiliger, “Maquette base; upon which rest three bronze the prisoners are crowded togeth er, for Monument for the Unknown figures, each three meters tall, of in calm resolve to resist an unknown Political Prisoner” women standing as witnesses and enemy. No figure is prominent, 2 Reg Butler, “Final Maquette observers; and a huge, three-legged and all bear the mark of the same for Monument for the Unknown iron construction jutting into the fate. Here, the fundamental idea is Political Prisoner” sky, meant to resemble a guard not the depiction of the victim in 3 Fritz Cremer, “First design tower. The female figures before the a passive role, but the connection for Buchenwald memorial (group empty cage – the prisoner is absent between accusation and resistance. of three)” – can be interpreted as the three Marias at the empty tomb of the resurrected Christ. Reminiscent of radio and radar installations, Butler’s “watchtower”, signalizes the surveillance of prisoners, but also the alternating surveillance and the eavesdropping of the two oppo- nents, each deeply mistrusted. In 1 1957, the West Berlin Senate invited Butler to erect his monument on a mountain of rubble above an air-raid 3 2 shelter on the border between the occupied zones. On this spot, its thirty-meter height visible far into Berlin’s Eastern zone, the monument was to be assigned a clear propaganda mission – as a counter-monument

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe Art Informel and Tachisme – Gestures of Abstraction

Georges Bataille, both a member begun to create abstract works appearance that this was existential and a dissident of the Surrealist during the war which later became art. The artist moves between form move ment coined the term known under the labels Informel and formlessness like a philosopher L’informe (form less) in 1929: and Tachisme, which also included between being and oblivion. The “Par contre affirmer que works by Camille Bryen, Georges personal experiences and lifestyles l’univers ne ressemble à rien et n’est Mathieu, and Jean-Paul Riopelle, of some of these artists, some of qu’informe revient à dire que for example. whom had been prisoners of war, l’univers est quelque chose comme In Germany, among the Informel served as the foundation for such une araignée ou un crachat.” artists were Ernst Wil helm Nay, interpretations. “On the other hand affirming Karl Otto Götz, Bernard Schultze, In Spain, France, Germany, and that the universe resembles nothing and Gerhard Hoehme. Art Informel also Eastern Europe, national vari- and is only formless amounts to saw itself as non-geometric abstract ants of Art Informel and Tachisme saying that the universe is some- painting. As the name suggests, dominated abstract art during the thing like a spider or spit.” the focus is on formlessness, which 1950s, for example, Roger Bissière, is created by subconscious impulses, Karl Fred Dahmen, Emil Schumacher, Visual art is usually an art of forms, through properties intrinsic to Leszek Nowosielski, Gyarmathy as Leonardo da Vinci described it colors, and through uncontrolled, Tihamér, and Roberto Crippa. Artists ca. 1500: The task of art is to spontaneous gestures. The spots or such as Antoni Tàpies further devel- represent the forms of visible things. splashes of color (taches in French) oped the informal ambitions and the Clearly, if art wants to be formless that are already in evidence in some program of Movimento Nucleare this is a serious conflict; such art is late Impressionist pictures – for into the new formlessness of Matter seem ing ly the very opposite of art. example, in works by Claude Monet, Painting. In this he was aided by This ex plains why the title of the and also in the attempts at painting engaging with Art Brut, founded by exhibitions and the catalog, which by the writer Victor Hugo – point Jean Dubuffet in 1945. engaged with formless art, was to the related development of Un art autre (Art of Another Kind, Tachisme. The heritage of Surre al- Peter Weibel 1952) by Michel Tàpies. It also was ism, too, which was also informed the art critic Michel Tàpies who by the subconscious, is occasionally coined the name Art Informel for recognizable. a Parisian exhibi tion in Studio In the 1940s until 1960, spots Facchetti in November 1951 titled of color were spontaneously created Signifiants de l’informel. Tachisme, on canvas with gestures, which a term coined by the art critic should express feelings without any Pierre Guéguen, was also applied rational control – parallel to Abstract to this new post-geometric abstract Expressionism and Action Painting art. Another synonym is Lyrical in America. The internal dynamics Abstraction. of the color gradients, whether After World War II, many surfaces or lines, sought to depict painters attempted to respond to subjective conditions of agitation. the atrocities of the war and its Dense splashes of color, expressive psychological, physical, social, and lines, bunches of lines, a tangle of urban aftermath in the figurative lines and knots permeated by color tradition. Shocking and painful spots, were intended to reflect a images of the horror experienced concentrate of the inner world. were the result. Some artists, Naturally, it was implicitly assumed however, like Jean Fautrier, Hans that this inner world is an abstract Hartung, and Wols (Alfred Otto representation of the outer world. Wolfgang Schulze) had already This gave rise to the claim and the

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe Material Painting The Painting as an Object

Once the object had been banished The panel painting, in oil on with Giovanni Anceschi, Gianni from painting, during the first half canvas, begins to disintegrate. In Colombo, Gabriele Devecchi; of the twentieth century, the investi- material painting, the painting and Gruppo N, with Alberto Biasi and gation of the pictorial means of the panel separate. The picture Toni Costa; and Gruppo MID representation themselves became vanishes, leaving only the panel, (Movimento Imagine Dimensione). the content of painting. A modern made of any desired material: sheet abstract picture is a deconstruction metal, marble, wood, sackcloth, Peter Weibel of the old figurative picture into concrete, etc. From Alberto Burri such elementary details as point, and Giuseppe Uncini to Herbert line, surface, and color. In the process, Zangs, the conventional means of such individual elements as color artistic representation – from line to can be accentuated and absolutized, color – were replaced by wood, iron, while others are neglected or omit- plastic, gunny, wax, lead, cotton ted altogether and finally replaced wool, sand, and plywood. Francesco by other elements; through the Lo Savio’s black, bent metal sheets substi tution of aluminum for canvas, of 1960 are bare surfaces signaling for example. the self-elimination of the historic The treatment of color as an conception of a picture. No longer absolute principle, the step from are things depicted, the material local, object-bound color to freely (re)presents itself. A picture becomes chosen absolute color was the motor an object on the wall, a real item of modern painting. Color becoming of diverse materials. This cult of the primary material of painting materials cleared the way for Arte cleared the way for using anything Povera, with its differentiation of as artistic material. Freed color led the semantic qualities of material, to freed material. The painter’s its play with implicit associations desire was no longer to convey an and meanings of material. The anecdote, but to produce a pictorial absolutization of color during the fact. The painting became an first half of the twentieth century artistically formed object. Picasso was followed by the absolutization had already collaged real newspaper of material during the second fragments, paint, pencil strokes, half. This freedom of material, the and wooden constructions into free choice of material brought picture objects. From the collaging forth radical substitutions, such as of two-dimensional material arose rubber or metal instead of canvas, the idea to, instead of painting liquid instead of color. Canvases pictures, build them from materials. began to bulge into the space, During the 1950s, nowhere was to revolve under motor power, were this transformation pursued more equipped with light sources. Pic- rigorously than in Italy. Italian tures or paintings became kinetic artists began to gradually switch objects with optical effects. The from the paint mud of the Informel groups Origine, with Ettore Colla to material painting. It was no and Alberto Burri; and Movimento longer sufficient to represent the Arte Nucleare, with Enrico Baj, experienced mess with paint mud Roberto Crippa, and Pinot Gallizio, and the The Crisis of the Easel were followed by Azimuth, with Picture (Clement Greenberg, 1948) Piero Manzoni, Agostino Bonalumi, began. Dadamaino; as well as by Gruppo T,

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe Arte Povera as an Artistic Guerilla Tactic

In November 1967, Germano Celant Italy. Instead of direct political patory, transformative approach, wrote in his Notes for a Guerilla statement, these artists pursued this significant current of Italian [Arte Povera: Appunti per una subversive strategies, to undermine post-war art, Arte Povera, exerted a guerriglia], published in the art the system. The sociopolitical substantial influence on numerous magazine Flash Art, “The artist goes concerns reflected in their artistic international art trends. from being a victim of exploitation approaches were antagonistic to to being a guerilla fighter, desiring the ideology of the world of con- Judith Bihr to decide the location of the battle sumption and to the americanization himself or herself, to use the advan- of culture. tages of mobility, to surprise and In their works, Arte Povera smash – not vice versa.” artists visualize, as Joseph Beuys, The term Arte Povera had chemical, physical, or alchemical already been coined by Celant, in qualities and processes of material, connection with the group show to express aspects of trans forma- Arte povera e IM spazio, which he tion, energy, and immediacy. Wires organized in the Galleria La Bertesca begin to glow, as wax melts and in Genoa, in September 1967. This atmospheric humidity is trans- first, now legendary, exhibition of formed into ice. While Yves Klein the movement included such artists had already, in his fire paintings, as Luciano Fabro, Jannis Kounellis, scorched the canvas with a flame- Giulio Paolini, and Pino Pascali – thrower, Pier Paolo Calzolari, in with Celant adding, in his manifesto, his 1966 Senza titolo (Lumino), Giovanni Anselmo, Piero Gilardi, presents fire directly – in the form Mario Merz, Gianni Piacentino, of an actual burning oil lamp applied Michelangelo Pistoletto, and Gilberto to the canvas. By piercing the Zorio. With the aim of reconciling canvas or objects with a neon tube, art and life, the artists created space- Mario Merz not only performs an act based works from such ordinary of demolition, of destruction, he and everyday materials as wood, also opens art into space. To an equal metal, wax, wire, cement, mirrors, extent, this exit from the picture or even neon. Whereas this use of draws in the viewer. Similarly, the “poor” materials aligns them with the mirrors in Michelangelo Pistoletto tradition of Italian material paint ing, and Luciano Fabro’s pieces serve the Arte Povera concept refers not as dynamic works of reflection trans- merely to their works’ ma teriality, posing the viewer into the picture, but can be viewed in terms of the thus countering the distance be- reduction of its form lan guage, as tween the artwork and the viewer. well. Celant borrowed the term from Hence, the viewer turns into a part formulations by Jerzy Grotowski, of the artwork. In a different ap- who had proclaimed, in Towards a proach, Giovanni Anselmo turns Poor Theatre (1965), an immediate the reflective surface to the wall, form of theater based on reduced causing the mirror to present only means, with neither costumes nor itself, in keeping with his general stage decoration. focus on aspects of presentation The Arte Povera movement instead of representation. evolved in the course of erupting Through its extension of form, student unrest and labor strikes in its use of material, and its partici-

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe Nouveau Réalisme – A Dialog with the Real Things

Around 1960, the era of post- the collages of fragments of words, smashed, sliced, split violins and abstraction began. While the post- colors and images on the public concert pianos by Arman, or César’s war period had been dominated by billboards of Rom and Paris were “compressions”, mainly of cars. forms of abstraction and material the result of chance procedure – Tinguely took apart machine parts experimentation, an art began to a subject-independent choice, as it and re-assembled them in a new evolve out of the material pictures of were, of great aesthetic density. fashion; Martial Raysse used store- the Italian polimaterici – an art in These are not actually collages, bought consumer products; while which the perspective of objects, though, in the true sense of prod- Daniel Spoerri, for his “snare and their expressive potential, took ucts of addition and combination, pictures”, mounted a tabletop verti- the place of the expressive potential but décollages – the opposite of cally on the wall, complete with of the subject. We see the conver- collage technique. The affichistes plates containing the random gence of many tendencies of this tore down, tore away, subtracted remains of meals. Everyday objects New Realism in Jean-Jacques from the billboards. In 1958, were transformed, by means of Lebel’s assemblage Portrait de Jacques Villeglé published “Des these artistic manipulations, into Nietzsche (1961): The wooden box réalités collectives”, the manifesto magical and cultic objects. In 1957, (140 × 145 × 32 cm) holds an unfath- of the affichistes (François Dufrêne, Roland Barthes wrote: “I think that omable collection of bizarre and Raymond Hains, Jacques Villeglé, cars today are almost the exact everyday objects – found objects Mimmo Rotella, and Wolf Vostell). equivalent of the great Gothic cathe- from a flea market, seashells, horns, It stated that the aesthetic reality drals.” (Mythologies). Christo’s bells, lettered metal signs, photo- of the poster tear-offs was not a wrapping, concealing, and tying up graphs, playing cards, paintings, creation of the artist alone, but of a of objects enhanced their myst e- a small case labelled “Lettres” collective. In 1960, Pierre Restany rious character, turning everyday containing written notes on paper, derived from this the first manifesto objects into totems. Niki de Saint bullet shellls, a harmonica, etc. of the nouveaux réalistes: “Nouveau Phalle transformed action painting Viewers can evoke sound from Réalism = nouvelles approches into shooting paintings. On her the object by ringing the bell; by perceptives du reel”. canvases, she mounted objects, following the instruction to put The collages and décollages garments, and bags of paint, and something into the case and take consist of two-dimensional residues either shot at them herself or invited something in exchange, they can and remains of the real. Jean- viewers to shoot at them. The interact with the picture. This Jacques Lebel’s assemblages are bursting bags spurted paint over three-dimensional collage, an as- symptomatic of the extension of the canvas and the objects, creating semblage, is thus a picture-object- collage and décollage techniques a mixture of informal painting and sound conglomeration of everyday into three-dimensional space. In- object collage. objects. In Paris, the affichistes stead of images, the basic element Just as Pierre Schaeffer’s had already discovered the charm of the assemblages are objects. musique concrete was interested of mundane posters on street walls. In Duchamp’s ready-mades (from in sounds, the new realists focused In the 1950s, the poster as mass 1913), industrial “finicates”, the on the expressive possibilities of medium became an aesthetic field. object as such had become a work objects. With their compositional The repeated tearing away and of art. So the nouveau réalistes arrangements from the universe of renewal of posters on billboards had pursued a dialogue with things. objects, they created a new grammar produced an independent, nearly Not the representation of objects of objects, asserting reality. This automatized collage technique. was their aim, but the presentation assertion of the real, though, includ- Created by artists from advertising of real objects. These objects could ed the human body; as evidenced illustrations, popular books, etc., be displayed in boxes, cases, crates, by Yves Klein’s anthropometries. the collages of the first half of the or showcases. The objects were The traces of sounds in music are twentieth century were still dictated largely taken from everyday life, mirrored in the traces of body by subjective choice. Conversely, but usually deformed – see the movement on Klein’s canvas. The

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty reclamation of the material reality had already, in 1945, provided took place all over Europe. Stano a body-centric philosophy, in his Filko in Czechoslovakia, Gyula Phénoménologie de la perception. Konkoly in Hungary, Marko Objects became animate bodies, and Pogačnik in Slovenia, Gianfranco bodies became animate objects. Baruchello in Italy, Poul Gernes in Artists such as Hervé Télémaque Denmark belong to the joint and Jean-Michel Sanejouand intro- founders of object art. duced ladders and kitchen furniture as a double of the real that later Peter Weibel tendencies of the 1980s and 1990s such as the furniture sculpture or art as design objects (sofa, chair etc.) anticipated. In 1962, the New York exhibi- tion The New Realists featured 29 artists from England, France, Italy, Sweden, and the US, with pictures and objects from the realm of mass culture and everyday life. This exhibition was a paraphrase of the exhibition Les Nouveaux Réalistes à Paris et à New York, curated by Restany in Paris, in 1961. In the catalogue of the 1962 exhibition, the art dealer Sidney Janis pointed out that the same people who, in England, were called pop artists, were known as poli- materici in Italy and as nouveaux réalistes in the US and France. Both Janis and Restany, the author of the 1961 text À 40° au-dessus de Dada, emphasized that Neo-Dada was the positive answer to the Dadaists’ negative anti-art stance. US art critics would later praise such US artists as Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, etc., while criticiz ing the European artists as mediocre and simple. The consumption spec- tacle of US pop art, with its cele- bration of mass-produced objects and the transfiguration of the ordinary, triumphed over the realism from Europe, with its attention to the real in search of truth. The

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe Pop Art in the East and West

The origins of the Pop Art movement In the Eastern Bloc countries, lie in Europe. Long before American the Pop Art movement’s outlook was artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and more political. In opposition to Andy Warhol elevated mass media the state doctrine of the Soviet Union consumer culture to the subject of with its rejection of Western prac- their works, artists from the London tices, it represented a direct form Independent Group (IG), for example, of artistic protest. This unoffi cial, Eduardo Paolozzi and Richard non-conformist art did not so much Hamilton, had introduced the term address the mechanisms of con- “Pop” to refer to their art. Founded sumer culture, but instead the in 1952 at the Institute of Contem po- effects of political dictatorship and rary Arts (ICA), the Independent oppression. Group was already discussing ideas In Hungary 1968, László for adapting and integrating mass Lakner, Gyula Konkoly, Endre Tót, culture such as advertising and and other artists came together in mass media in the fine arts. the Iparterv exhibition in Budapest. Pop Art was oriented towards Inspired by Western European the consumer world, which in the and American Pop Art, in their works post-war era increasingly influenced these artists engaged with social everyday life with a growing range and political problems, and reflected of products and the accompanying with bitter irony on a lost pan- advertising. Everyday objects of Euro pean unity. The Slovakian artist mass culture such as glossy maga- Július Koller inscribed everyday zines, advertising posters, or pop- artifacts like fabric remnants in his ular literature like comics became Textextiles works and thus included the points of departure for artworks. reality in art. The starting point In his collages for example, Paolozzi of Koller’s concept art were his Anti- assembled pieces cut from adver- Happenings, in which he declared tising leaflets and other printed everyday experiences and objects matter that he described as “bunk” as artistic actions. (nonsense, rubbish). His so-called In Russia, artists like Mikhail “bunk lecture” of 1953 at the ICA, Roginsky experimented with in which he presented these collages replicas of real objects in the arts. to the audience at high speed in By making everyday objects from the a non-linear and uncommented se- communal kitchen the subject of quence, is regarded as the birth of his works, Roginsky not only founded Pop Art. Russian Pop Art, he is also consid- The Independent Group re- ered as the initiator of reality art in ceived massive publicity with their Russia. legendary exhibition This Is Tomorrow, which took place in the Judith Bihr Whitechapel Gallery in London in 1956. Collectively, the participating artists created a new awareness of space, and with their unusual ways of presenting paintings, photo- graphs, reproductions, and objects of mass culture, they set new bench- marks for curating.

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe New Visions

The late 1950s were the dawn of a Manzoni and Enrico Castellani), and The exhibition Nove tendencije, new era; artists focused on new the Dutch group Nul (as of 1961) which took place in 1961 in the materials, techniques, and concepts. strove to break away from painting Galerija suvremene umjetnosti in In Western Europe, a transnational on panel or canvas and take art into Zagreb, Croatia, was followed by the movement of young artists opposed venues other than museums and heyday of the international New to tradition formed, and a new, galleries. They pushed an extended Tendencies movement, which de-centralized geography of art spectrum of artistic materials to the engaged with the arts as “visual emerged with centers in Antwerp, point of including real movement, research” and was joined by the Amsterdam, Milan, Bern, among light, and chance in the repertoire French Groupe de Recherche d’Art others. In the Eastern European of artistic media in order to enhance Visuel and other artist groups. countries of the post-Stalin thaw the interaction between the viewer As early as 1968, the first works period, too, the focus on new ideas and the artwork. The notion of the were created with the aid of and materials, on science as a artist as a genius seemed passé to computer technology within the resource for the arts, was apparent. the new generation. Works lost their context of this movement. Space travel and the rapid pace of claim to uniqueness. scientific and technological advance The works by the German Zero Daria Mille inspired the arts. What this new artists were inspired by the love of generation of artists shared was light and the striving for harmony their rejection of the principles of and beauty. Artworks by Italian Informel and Tachisme and the artists of the Zero movement were individualistic, emotionally charged characterised by clear rhythms and gestures of the artists. principles of organization as well Dusseldorf’s Zero group of as structures that testified to con- artists was driven by the idea of a nec tions with traditions of Classical radical new beginning starting from Antiquity. The artists from the Nul square one or zero, a departure into group differed from these trends an unknown, new and wonderful in Germany and Italy in their prag- future and art. Otto Piene for mulat ed matic point of view, their quest for a the difference to the gene ra tion new definition of the relationship before succinctly: “For the genera- between art and reality, and their tion of Dubuffet and Tàpies, for pursuit of artistic anonymity (thus the entire generation that preceded their preference for industrial and us, the war and the Earth were synthetic materials with tactile their definitive experiences: earth, qualities (Peeters), assemblages of material, sand, clay … for them these everyday objects (Henderikse), and were safety, security.” Instead of serialism (Schoonhoven)). search ing for safety on Earth, the In their works, the artists of artists of the new generation wanted the Gruppo T from Milan and to overcome gravity, fly in the sky, Gruppo N from Padua pursued a reach for the stars, and integrate rationalistic programmatic ap- natural elements into their art. proach. The Op art artists system- Important stimuli came from artists atically analyzed optical stimulation such as Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, effects, and the irritation of the Jesús Rafael Soto, and Lucio eye through simu lated movement. Fontana. Their works were no longer about The artists associated with anything meta physically mystical, Zero, with the Galleria Azimut in but about the solution of concrete Milan (founded in 1959 by Piero physical problems.

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe Kinetic, Optical, and Light Art The Reality of Movement, the Viewer, and Light

In the mid-1950s, the first artistic by Agam, Pol Bury, Alexander Calder, A nineteenth-century painter could manifestations appeared countering Marcel Duchamp, Jesús Rafael Soto, represent the natural light of the sun the ideology of subjective expression Jean Tinguely und Victor Vasarely, only through color. Color meant light. embodied in all the variations of and others, and constituted the found- In 1921, László Moholy-Nagy pro- abstraction – abstract expressionism, ing event of kinetic art; i.e. the art claimed “Light is color”, for now real Informel, and Tachism. After the of movement performed by machines. artificial light could be used. So color, decade-long focus on the sensibility They also showed a side program of light, and motion formed the triad of the subject, neo-avant-gardists avant-garde films, the art of the motion from which light art was born. Op art recalled George Grosz and John picture. The second seminal 1955 demanded motion from the real Heartfield’s 1920 slogan “Art is dead. exhibition was Man, Machine, Motion, viewer. For it took a shift of position, Long live Tatlin’s new machine art!”. conceived by the painter Richard real movement before the picture or Even earlier, around 1900, it had been Hamilton for the London Institute for image-construction to create the the emergence of the problem of Contemporary Arts (ICA), featuring motion illusions, and other optical motion in art that had brought the 200 photographs and representations effects. The viewer turned into a co- shift from the subject to real objects of drawings. These showed vehicles creator of the work. and machines. and machines designed to extend the In Italy, the groups N, T, and MID Following the machine-based powers of the human body, thus used magnetism, motors, and other industrial revolution, the speed of enabling loco motion on land, water, machine elements to enhance the machines, from the automobile to the and in the air. Machine-driven drawing effects of optical arts. From Davide airplane, put human mobility into a and painting apparatuses, sculptures, Boriani to Gabriele De Vecchi, spinning situation of competition. This also projections, and light installations disks generated ever new variations raised the question, how to represent introduced the new age of mechanical of magnetic filings or geometric the three-dimensional movement of art – from Len Lye to Takis’s magnetic- patterns. Other artists, from Pol Buri objects, animals, or machines in space musical sculptures around 1965. Now to Otto Piene, were using light sources and time on the two-dimensional a resident of England, Lye has sub- whose rotation – either behind perfo- surface of paintings. Cubism respond- sumed both his films and his kinetic rated screens or walls – constantly ed with its multi-perspective view, sculptures of 1960 – named “Tangi- generated new optical patterns of light resulting when the object is stationary bles”, after the mobiles by Alexander and shadow. Alberto Biasi employed while the viewer moves around it. In Calder – under the term “art of move- light sources and rotating prisms to Futurist representation, the viewer is ment”. Alfons Schilling combined produce paintings from light effects. stationary, while the object is moving. with his circular, rotating paintings in Members of GRAV, such as Julio In another tradition, born in 1882 the early 1960s the dynamic of Art Le Parc, used the aforementioned from the chronophotography of Informel with the dynamic of kinetic techniques to create large-format light Étienne-Jules Marey, the movement of art. reliefs and spaces. In Eastern Europe, objects is pictorially represented by In 1955, the manifesto “Color too, artists such as Milan Dobeš and painting motion phases side by side. – Light – Movement – Time” was Aleksandar Srnec took new construc- During the 1950s, the filmic or distributed at the Paris exhibition Le tive aspects from Op Art. painterly representation of movement Mouvement. Machine-based motion, Op art, initiated by the motion evolved into the reality of movement. from film to mobiles, would also of the viewer – first as painting Italian artist Bruno Munari fabricated be come one of the sources of the art (Victor Vasarely, Bridget Riley), then already in 1930 with macchina aerea of artificial light. Hence, artists such as disk (Marina Apollonio), as box the probably first mobile in art history as Piero Fogliati, François Morellet (Lily Greenham) and spaces composed and became famous with his maccine and Gerhard von Graevenitz not only of wires, threads, etc. (Soto, Gianni inutile as from 1933. produced kinetic objects between Colombo) – reached a new climax, Two exhibitions were significant movement, chance and order, but also in the motion of machines, in com bi- for the kinetics, both in 1955. Firstly: light objects. nation with light sources. Le Mouvement. Held at the Galerie For it was with real movement Denise René in Paris, it featured works that the era of real light also began. Peter Weibel

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe Neo-Constructivism

While the political regimes in the Warsaw, which was dedicated to Towards a Synthesis of the Arts at Warsaw Pact countries of the post- preserving and developing the the end of 1964, the first kinetic Stalinist thaw period were agreed on avant-garde tradition. objects, which were powered by zero-tolerance regarding the forms In Czechoslovakia, interest in small motors, were presented. These of political criticism in the arts, with the constructivist tradition did not included The Soul of the Crystal varying degrees of rigor, they did surface until the early 1960s, where- by Francisco Infante-Arana, a con- all tolerate modern abstract art that by Informel was still viewed as the struction made of Plexiglas that did not follow the dogma of Socialist main trend until the end of the contained a lamp built into its Realism as long as it was nonpo - 1950s. In his works, Karel Malich pedestal and rotating disc with litical. In most of the Eastern Euro- experimented with spatial design by openings for light. Within the group, pean countries the turn to wards creating shapes with rods and wire, Viacheslav Koleichuk was the constructivism took place as a and utilizing new materials such as closest to science, an architect who reaction against the subjective form Plexiglas in his objects. With his created artworks at the intersection of expression of Informel. objects, Hugo Demartini not only between art, science, and techno- The key figure of pre-war Euro- contributed to the development of logical inventions. The development pean constructivism, Lajos Kassák, neo-constructivism, but also to Land of his objects was also influenced still exerted influence on the Art and Action Art through his by his knowledge of self-organizing younger generation of artists in process-oriented works. From 1964, constructions, which at the time Hungary and beyond, despite not he utilized in his reliefs elementary were widely applied in research on being allowed to travel and exhibit geometric shapes such as spheres space technology. or publish his works since 1957 or hemispheres in a grid. Radoslav Scientific findings from the because of the discrepancy between Kratina created objects, which enabled fields of physics, cybernetics, and his political views and those of the interaction because they included research on perception influenced party. The works of younger artists variable elements and were there- the works of several artists such of this movement, Imre Bak and fore named Bílý variabil. as Yuri Zlotnikov, Bulat Galeev, and Sándor Molnár, were presented at The neo-constructivist move- Frank Jozef Malina. Malina, the son the legendary Ipartev exhibition in ment in Czechoslovakia reached its of Czech immigrants to the USA, 1968. zenith in 1965 with the founding not only became the first director of In Poland, neo-constructivism of the Synteza group by Dušan NASA, he is also famous for his had strong roots in the tradition Konečný, the opening of the Klub pioneering achievements in the area of the pre-war era, and was treated Konkretistu (Club of Concretists) in of light and kinetic art, and as the on an equal footing with national 1967, which was also visited by the founder of Leonardo art magazine. and modern art. The connection of Slovakian members of this move- the art scene to this tradition and ment, Milan Dobeš, Alojz Klimo, and Daria Mille the art of Katarzyna Kobro or Miloš Urbásek, and the exhibition Władysław Strzemiński was un- Nová Citlivost (New Sensibility) in broken. The neo-constructivist move- 1968. ment in Poland included artists The Club of Concretists main- such as Henryk Stażewski, Kajetan tained ties to the Russian group Sosnowski, and Zbigniev Gostomski. Dvizhenije (Movement), which During the 1960s Gostomski formed around Lev Nussberg in created geometric Optical Objects, Moscow in 1962. For example, Dušan whose monochrome surfaces were Konečný informed the Moscow created through the overlaying of scene about kinetic art and the light and strictly geometrical shapes, activities of the GRAV, ZERO, and and were based on the principles of MID groups. Dvizhenije promoted balance and harmony. His work, research in the historic avant-garde like that of Henryk Stażewski and direction, especially of a construc- Edward Krasiński, was supported by tivist character (Naum Gabo, the legendary Foksal Galerie in Antoine Pevsner). In the exhibition

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe New Tendencies

To speak of “art as research” and 1961 in the Galerija suvremene the “programming” of works of art umjetnosti in Zagreb, Croatia. was a provocation in the early A series of exhibitions followed in 1960s. With these terms the artists Italy, Germany, France, and Croatia. of the “New Tendencies”, a group of At the Arte programmata exhibition artists and theorists from all over (Olivetti, Milan, 1962) works were Europe, demanded reform of the presented for the first time within production and reception of art. At the New Tendencies that utilized the time the GRAV group (including motors and electric light. Through Julio Le Parc, Jesús Rafael Soto, its participation in The Responsive François Morellet, and Yvaral), Eye exhibition (Museum of Modern which was founded in 1960 in Paris, Art, New York, 1965) this artistic still called themselves Groupe de movement, under the name of Recherche d’Art Visuel — research “Op Art”, garnered global attention. group for the visual arts. This Defining art as “visual re- introduced the term “research”. In search” enabled the New Tenden cies a second step, the term “art” was to propagate computer techno logy dropped, and there was only refer- as a tool for artists to work with as ence to “visual research.” early as 1968. The intention was to put an end to the cult of the solitary ge- Margit Rosen nius, who in an inexplicable creative act produces a unique work of art. Artists, like scientists, should work in groups, and make use of the latest scientific findings and techni- cal methods. New forms should not originate from feelings, but from the logic of the materials used or on the basis of predetermined rules. Instead of creating luxury goods for an elite, art production should nourish visual knowledge and allow a wider audience to make new aesthetic experiences. For these art practitioners the autonomy of science seemed more promising than the autonomy of art. Not only the artist was given a new role, the viewer was, too. The viewer would become proactive. Optical effects and moving elements of the artworks were intended to “activate” the audience. The aim was that viewers should experience themselves as capable of acting and creating. The New Tendencies came into existence after the exhibition Nove tendencije, which took place in

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe Cybernetics and Computer Art – From Design to Programming

The interplay of color, light and Computers and Visual Research], motion was, in cybernetic art, featured computer art and pro- controlled by machines and motor. grammed art by Vladimir Bonačić. Mechanical and electronic devices The same year, again at the London and apparatuses guided the ICA, the exhibition Cybernetic movements of light sources, of Serendipity took place, also focused chromatic changes, and of machine on encounters between fine art elements, as well as the generation and the computer, including the of sounds. The “Arte programmata” interactive installation Colloquy of proclaimed by Umberto Eco in 1962, Mobiles, by Gordon Pask. The during the Milan exhibition Arte impulse for the exhibition came programma ta. Arte cinetica, Opere from Max Bense, who had already, molti plicate. Opera aperta, found in 1965 promoted the showing of its real ization in a cybernetic, par- computer graphics by Georg Nees tially computer-aided, art. and Frieder Nake in Stuttgart. From kinetics, it was only a A pioneer of computer art is also step to cybernetics. Following the the Czech artist Zdeněk Sýkora. publication of Cybernetics or Yet the cybernetic notions of Control and Communication in the feed-back and participation had Animal and the Machine by Norbert an impact also on analogue work Wiener in 1948, artists began to (see Stephen Willats and Roy Ascott). deal with feed-back and auto-inter fer- The artwork became a control sys- ence, later also using the medium tem of modules, of variables or video. The idea was for movement mobile elements (e.g. Karl Gerstner of such external factors as wind and Paul Talman), acting with each to control the movement of internal other and mutually influencing factors of the machine. Another each other. aim was to make light, color, and sound influence each other. Nicolas Peter Weibel Schöffer is seen as the father of cybernetic art for his creation, in 1956, of the first cybernetic sculp- ture, CYSP 1. In several stages, Schöffer expanded in space and time – exploring spatiodynamics, from 1948; luminodynamics, from 1957; and chronodynamics, from 1959. Alongside his large cybernetic towers (La tour lumière cyber né tique, 1973), he designed cybernetic cities (La ville cyber nétique, 1969). For cybernetic art, or computer art, two major exhibitions also de- serve mentioning. In Zagreb, since 1961, the Nouvelles Tendances had dealt with op art, light art, and kinetic art. The 1968 exhibition there, Tendencije 4 [Tendencies 4:

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe New Forms of Interactivity – The Audience as Performer

The appearance of real objects in the the audience to co-create art. From three-dimensional sculpture evolved art system altered the relation ship 1960, the Swiss artist Paul Talman into a four-dimensional, temporal between the viewer and the work of created pictorial objects, inside and spatial event. Objects became the art. Paintings are no normal objects. which a large number of white and set-up and impulse for actions. Since They’re not meant for any use other black balls were encased – which, objects have always had an embed- than viewing and reflection. Paint ings when the objects were turned, gener- ded utility function, every object aren’t to be touched, and the viewer ated either black or white picture actually comes with an instruction is not allowed to interact with them surfaces or visual patterns of black for its use. Now the artists began pro - physically. Conversely, objects have and white circles. These roll and viding instructions, in which manner an exchange value and a utility value. ball pictures chal lenged the viewer their specially created objects were Objects are normally objects of to participate in the visual design to be used and actions performed. utility. Duchamp deprived his object- of the pictorial object. Yaacov Agam, Sculp tures became forms of action. focused ready-mades of their utility a pioneer of kinetic and op art, The participation of the audience function. A latrine urinal (Fontaine, pursued a similar focus on physical led to an interaction with objects, 1917) was meant not for urinating interactivity aimed at making the whether by mechanical and ana logue but for looking at. Nor was the Bottle viewer a co-creator of the artwork. means, or by media and electronic Rack (Porte-bouteilles, 1914) intend- He produced sound and touch means. The audience interacted ed for drying bottles. The Surre al- pictures that changed upon being with materials and physical objects, ists also removed the utility function touched, and magnetic pictorial but, even then, also with electronic of their objects, in order to elevate objects whose metal surface parts and electrical media. Thus, music the objects to works of art. In his could be randomly repositioned. and film, too, became forms of action. famous 1921 object Cadeau, Man Wolf Vostell titled his 1964 Audience participation replaced or Ray glued an iron with a series of happening YOU, because it called for created the work of art. The closed thumbtacks to its sole, to make the actions performed exclusively by object of art became an open field of iron non-functional for ironing. For those taking part (his score for action. this reason, the Surre alists called the event literally specifying “par- These practices of audience their object art “objets à fonctionne- tici pants”). In a gallery in 1969, participation involving pictorial ment symboliques”. Canceling the Peter Weibel exhibited the audience ob jects and sculptures have been utility function, allowed the objects it self as a work of art, by video graph- heightened by the electronic media. to function purely sym bol ically ing them and then showing the In its closed-circuit installations, and thus become works of art. Found taped footage, partially time-delayed, video art brought every viewer into objects or slightly trans formed ob- on the gallery screens (Audience the image, and computer-aided jects were brought into close corre- Exhibited). As early as 1961, Piero interactive installations do not exist spondence with cultic objects. With Manzoni presented one of his Magic without audience interaction. In the the new realists, art praxis began Bases, for viewers to stand on and second half of the twentieth century, to home in on the use of the object. acquire the status of a “living sculp- audience participation has clearly As early as the 1950s, Jean Tinguely ture”. In a similar vein, for his 1961 characterized major facets of visual had invited the audi ence to paint work Signature of Living People, art, in both its analogue and digital along, with his Méta matics painting he signed naked female models, realms. machines. In 1961, Niki de Saint de claring them works of art. Phalle had invited the audience 1968 was the year Franz Erhard Peter Weibel to fire at bags of paint on canvases. Walther published his book Objekte, Even the paint ing itself became a benutzen [Objects, use]. F. E. Walther form of action. Thus, in 1964, Karl created original objects out of Gerstner titled his book Programme fabric, for the viewer to use. Without ent werfen [Designing Programs]. the participation of the audience, Informal painting was not alone the objects would become neither though – concrete art also invited sculp ture nor work of art. Thus,

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe Action Art – The Artist as Performer

The development of abstract expres- themselves and others; dowsing constructed situations of the group sionism, of Informel and Tachism the canvas, themselves and others around Guy Debord, the Inter na- led to a performative shift, begin- with paint, etc. Brus covers himself tionale Situationniste. ning, in the fine arts, with painting. and the surface of the canvas with The performative shift opens In 1952, Harold Rosenberg coined white paint, then uses the brush up new access to the media photo- the term “action painting”, referring to draw a single, continuous vertical graphy, film, and video, as well. to acts of painting in the arena of black stroke across the canvas While these media are initially used the canvas, placed horizontally. The and him self. Finally he leaves the to record and document actions paint material spattered, dripped, canvas and strolls through Vienna, before an audience, actions are soon and splashed across the canvas from as a white-painted body, divided realized only for photos, film, and the artist’s hand, from his brush or by a black stroke. There, in 1965, video. Through this process, self- can. The painter moved around the an action took place without a contained, independent works of canvas, bending over the canvas, canvas. From the three stages of photographic, cinematic, and video virtually wanting to be in the picture perfor ma tive painting – action on art arise. himself (Jackson Pollock). The the canvas, action before the canvas, painting became an action surface. action without a canvas – evolves Peter Weibel This action painting often took body art. The painter becomes a place in front of photographers and performer, an actor using painterly film cameras. Thus, painters were means to realize audience actions. acting for a virtual audience. This These actions, from Brus to Beuys, soon led to show-painting before are centered primarily on the artist. a real audience; from 1954, by Some action artists, such as Wolf Georges Mathieu and others; and Vostell and Valie Export are already from 1958, by Yves Klein in Paris. involving the audience in their Mathieu painted on a theater stage actions. Soon artists are leaving the before thousands of spectators. painting medium and taking up Before huge vertical canvases, he musical, plastic, and media elements moved about like a fencer or acrobat, for their actions. Music, sculpture, presenting his audience the drama and film also become forms of of painterly gestures, of operations action, either of the artist or of the of color and form. He painted and audience. Joseph Beuys, in parti- performed at the same time. For his cular, transformed sculpture into Anthropometries, Klein used “living a form of action. His demonstrations brushes”, naked females whose are a combination of numerous bodies were covered with paint, who action elements: ritual elements, rolled either horizontally across material associations, sculpture the floor or vertically before the conceptions, lectures, drawings canvas, in front of an audience and on panels, music, etc. Artistic duos, with musical accompaniment. In including Gilbert and George, per- other words, the actions on canvas form as “singing sculptures”. evolved into actions before a canvas. In France, such artists as J.J. Lebel The actions of the Viennese artists have extended performance to Günter Brus, Otto Muehl, and theatrical actions, in Czechoslovakia Hermann Nitsch led and paved the artists such as Milan Knížák or way. Begin ning as informal painters, groups such as OHO in Slovenia and they lay themselves and others on Gorgona in Croatia. An important and before the canvas, covering with role for the development of action paint not only the canvas, but also art played the activities, events and

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe 1968: The End of a Utopia?

As a phenomenologist and realist, ing of the group SPUR, in June 1957, Wolf Vostell’s aim was to counter the as well as to its first mani festo, passive consumption of atro cious of November 1958. Prem presents imagery in the daily news, in reports a bird’s-eye view of a table, with on the Vietnam War, for example, papers, manifestos and leaflets, and and to convey to the audience an the group members seated around immediate experience of how reality it: Prem (front left), with teddy feels outside their familiar living boy-haired HP Zimmer beside him and work zone. Just as it was and, opposite them, Helmut Sturm, necessary to come to terms with the the Dane Asger Jorn, and the sculp- suppressed past of geno cide against tor Lothar Fischer. HP Zimmer’s European Jews, he saw the necessity 1967 painting Rien ne va plus to revive audience awareness of the (SPURgeflecht), on the other hand, sup pressed present – for the crimes shows the end of the group, in the of the past (as in Auschwitz) find cellar studio with a round iron stove their contin u ation in the present and heating pipes. With a large (as in Vietnam). yellow X, Zimmer annuls the hetero- On 27 May 1967, Vostell held geneous gathering of artistic the happening Miss Vietnam at personalities. In 1968, the group a firing range in Vingst (Cologne). disbanded. Window dummies mounted on Le drapeau noir. Tirage illimité, shooting targets were slit open by by Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers, Vostell, filled with plastic tanks and is one of thirty embos sed signs, tin soldiers, and moved back and created in late 1968. The black flag forth on the retrieval system of the of anarchy and a red exclamation firing range. mark are emblazoned along with During the 1960s, Guy Debord the names of cities where political and the Situationists, to which the demonstrations of the ’68 movement artists group SPUR temporarily took place, such as Amsterdam, belonged, developed radical visions Prague, Berkeley, Berlin, Nanterre, concerning the liberation of the Paris, Milan, and Brussels. individual from the constraints of The label tirage illimité consumer society. Their aim was to promis es an unlimited edition of seek out and exploit the unexpect- an industrially produced multiple, ed, on the road to a utopian society. with the aim of furthering the In symbolic representation of all democratization of art. In reality, other areas of society, the liberation the work was made in an edition of of art was seen as the royal road seven positive and seven negative to human self-liberation. examples. Broodthaers thus eluded In this sense, the Paris street a popular demand of the time. and barricade battles of May 1968 In 1968, the painter Harald were, for all the strikes and occu - Metzkes, responded to the political pation of factories, not about events in Prague with his painting political or economic revolution, Badender (Kain). With the biblical but about a cultural revolution name Kain, the painter from the with the central battle cry L’imagi- GDR was referring to the “brother nation prend le pouvoir. (Imagi- countries” that invade their brother nation is taking power.) country. Heimrad Prem’s 1960 painting Manifest is a reference to the found- Eckhart Gillen

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe Utopian Architecture

The architectural modernism of contacts that included Archigram, the 1960s sought alternative paths in Great Britain, and the meta bolists, outside the usual notions and in Japan. con cepts of architecture and toward “Everything is architecture” intellectual and conceptual spatial proclaimed Austrian artist and models. In utopian concepts closely ar chi tect Hans Hollein, in a 1968 interlinked with fine art, architects issue of Bau, the magazine of began to develop radical concep- the cen tral association of architects tional models for a future defined by in Austrian. With his anti-functio- technology and science. Driven nalist approach to spatial art, Hollein by social, political, and economic ex panded the field of architecture aspects, they established during this by picking up the link of art with period a radical revision of thought, everyday living. In the 1960s in opposition to the functionalism Austrian artist and architect Walter of the post-war era. Pichler designed his so-called proto- In their theoretical projects, types and pneumatic sculp tures a number of radical movements in on the liminal zone between archi- Europe, such as Archigram in tecture, design and sculpture using Great Britain, Archizoom in Italy, new materials such as poly ester or Haus-Rucker-Co and Coop and PVC. Himmel b(l)au in Austria, broke away from any form of constructive pur- In Eastern Europe, the Czech artist pose-orien tation, instead themati- Karel Malich, for example, worked zing space in a temporary flow, as with utopian spatial concepts. a constant re configuration. Concept From the mid-1960s, he filled his was priori tized over the actual notebooks with designs for idealistic possibi lity of realization. prototypes of thermic buildings, The city became a field for cities for police-free states, and experimentation. Coop Himmelb(l)au dwel lings under water or even in or Haus-Rucker-Co developed new outer space. He considered his ideal forms of urban activism by designing con struction drawings for future interventions in public space or dwel lings as being in the tradition of transient installations. In the end of the avant-gardists of the 1920s. the 1950s Yves Klein conceptualized Malich’s spatial approach was also his utopian “Air Architecture” and reflected in his sculptures, which can worked together with architects also be viewed as utopian archi- such as Werner Ruhnau and Claude tectural models. Czech action artist Parent. Klein’s concept of an ephe- Milan Knížák, on the other hand, me ral architec ture based on air, approached the topic of archi tecture water and fire sought to achieve libe- from a performative perspec tive ration from materiality into immate- and, from the 1960s, designed such ri ality. Founded in 1965 by, among radical living concepts as his City others, Yona Friedman, Ionel Schein, in the Desert project (1969–70). and Nicolas Schöffer, the Groupe International d’Architecture Prospec- Judith Bihr tive (GIAP) transcended national borders to unite architects and urba- nists, maintaining international

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe Concept Art – The Concept of Image as Concept Script

In 1959, Richard Rorty published Debord split off from the Letterist spectrum of concept art extended his famous anthology The Linguistic International; Debord painted with from visual and conceptual philo- Turn. Essays in Philosophical words and implemented their sophy to analytic photography, and Method (1967). The linguistic turn concepts in nonrepresentational from “Peinture conceptuelle” was the first of a series of declared films as well as in architecture and (Arnold Gehlen, 1960) to material turns, from the iconic turn (fine happenings. analysis films. arts), to the sonic turn (sound art), It is generally the case that Parallel to concept art and and the performative turn (perfor- devices and appliances for per- media art, which in the 1960s mance art). The linguistic turn con- forming specific tasks come with an represented these semiotic breaks sisted in the assertion that lan guage instruction manual. Similarly, there and ontological differences (i.e., not is the model for all expla na tions were instructions and scores for just the means by themselves but and constructions of the world. the situations, actions, events, and the relationship of the means to the Beginning with Ludwig Wittgenstein’s so on for the participants. The in- world), important philosophical Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus struction manuals took on a life of works were written with similar (1922), “A proposition is a picture of their own and eventually appeared tendencies and questions about the reality. A proposition is a model of separately. The instructions, the relationship between words and reality as we imagine it” (4.01), and text, replaced the image, the object. things: Word and Object (1960) by up to John L. Austin’s How to Do The description of an exhibition W.V.O. Quine, and Les mots et les Things with Words (1962) the supre- became the exhibition itself. The choses (1966) by M. Foucault, who ma cy of language is postu lated. description of an object replaced the also published on Magritte. After World War II ended, in the object. The instruction of an action crisis of representation that ensued became the artwork. The commen- Peter Weibel as a result, art turned its back on tary became more important than the medium of the image as the the actual work, and ultimately dominant and primary mode of re- became the work. An object with the presentation as well as on sub jective word “painting” became a painting. expressive art. The same grey object with the word A phase in material painting “sculpture” became a sculpture – of separating the image from the as an artwork by the English artist panel, which led to pure pictorial group appropriately named Art & objects without canvas or paint, was Language demonstrates. Art became followed by destroying the actual a form of language and writing, material means of representing art, a “concept script” or “ideography” from canvas to pianos. This freed (Gottlob Frege, 1879). The concept the way for representation to be re- script then became concept art, placed entirely by reality. Art around which works with letters, numerals, 1960 was object-centered reality words, and symbols. Writing became art. The image as panel also became images, poetry became painting, a writing tablet (Joseph Beuys, analytic philosophy became poetry, Bazon Brock, Marcel Broodthaers, and analyses of logic became works Mangelos). Even before this, how- of art. After Hegel proclaimed the ever, the image had been laid to rest end of art around 1800 and replaced by the impact of the linguistic turn. it with philosophy as the medium As early as 1945, Isidore Isou of the absolute and knowledge, art developed the principles of Lettrism, drew in the shadow of the linguistic an art form consisting of letters and turn closer to philosophy in order words. In 1957, the Situationist to regain some importance instead International group around Guy of being mere decoration. The

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe Media Art – From Space-based to Time-based Imagery

Around 1840, photography was enormously extending human visual developed as a new technical support- experience was denied access to medium for pictures. One of the galleries and museums – especially features that distinguished photo- when these experiments, moreover, graphy from painting was its involved film installations with tech- reproducibility. Unlike a painting, ni cal equipment. Cinemato graphic a photograph is not an original, art became underground cinema, as since numerous copies can be made film artists were forced to organize from one negative. Furthermore, their own film cooperatives and a photograph is created with the aid festivals. of an apparatus that, to a degree, From 1963, artists found independently produces the picture. access, albeit indirectly, to television Due to this dissimilarity to prevail- as a new pictorial medium. For a ing artistic praxis, it took photo- brief period, during the 1970s, the graphy nearly a century to attain the illusion emerged that even the mass status of an art. From its European medium TV could be forged into an birth around 1900, film was likewise art form. Yet only with the person- perceived, and for the same reasons, alized version of television – video as being distant from art – despite systems – were artists able to work the fact that, from 1920 on, modern directly with the electronic image. painters were shooting abstract or In 1968, video – with its portable surrealist films transforming the camera, portable recorder, and the inherent laws of the medium film possibilities of simultaneous visual into art, into the seventh art. After reproduction of reality – became 1945, these interbellum photo graph- an individually controlled medium ic and filmic experiments were like the brush and palette. Photo- vehemently and increasingly ex tend- graphy and film, as art, were ed by the neo-avant-garde. The pic- followed by video art. During the torial artists and sculptors fasci nated 1980s, the art market marginalized by movement were also interested in these new media, as subculture. film, the art of the moving image The cultural media explosion of the (Robert Breer, Len Lye, etc.). From 1960s, however, foreshadowed these efforts evolved the major 1960s current society – primarily a media movement of experimental and world, to the point that media and avant-garde cinema. society are almost synonyms. We The spectrum of avant-garde speak of the Internet and of “social cinema ranged from pure animation media”, because the media consti- to computer films, from material tute the new paradigm of society. cinema to structural cinema, from metric film to expanded cinema Peter Weibel (multi-vision, live actions on stage using film projection). These new optical explorations, through the medium of the moving image; this visual, two-dimensional form of Kinetism; this new camera eye

ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe