Sale: 429 / Post War / Contemporary Art, Dec. 04./05. 2015 in Munich Lot 954

 

954
Otto Piene
Dynamisches Volumen, 1961.
Oil
Estimate:
€ 120,000 / $ 130,800
Sold:
€ 817,000 / $ 890,530

(incl. surcharge)
Dynamisches Volumen. 1961.
Oil, smoke and fire on canvas.
Verso signed and dated. Stretcher inscribed and with arrow indicating the direction. 109.5 x 109 cm (43.1 x 42.9 in).

Early suggestive smoke- and fire pciture by the great "ZERO" master. In exceptional condition.

PROVENANCE: Private collection North Rhine-Westphalia.

EXHIBITION: Galleria la Salita, Rome, 1964 (with label on stretcher).
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Nagaoka/Japan (with label on stretcher).

Our work from 1961 shows the suggestive powers of Otto Piene's smoke- and fire pictures: The work is particularly captivating for its clear composition, as it is characteristic of Concrete Art: squares and circles, black and white - entirely pure colors and forms. However, it is not the geometrical-abstract objectivity of the concrete, but, in contrast, the image is dominated by subjectivity and suggestiveness. The black smoke circle contrasting with the light ground evokes reminiscence of the mystic level of the dualism of light and darkness. The black circle's contours nervously glimmer and suggest the seething energies of elemental forces. At the same time this image has the apocalyptic disturbance of a solar eclipse. It surely is no coincdence that such an eclipse kept Europe on the edge in February 1961, the work's year of origin.



954
Otto Piene
Dynamisches Volumen, 1961.
Oil
Estimate:
€ 120,000 / $ 130,800
Sold:
€ 817,000 / $ 890,530

(incl. surcharge)