Opening the Archive: The ABCs of ZERO

Unpublished archival material looking back on one of the most far-reaching avant-garde art movements in mid-century Europe

The ZERO avant-garde movement was founded in Düsseldorf in the 1950s by Heinz Mack and Otto Piene, who called it "a zone of silence and pure possibilities for a new beginning." Each traditional concept of art invited a different challenge. Kinetics and light replaced brush and canvas; the studio became the exhibition space, with music playing in the background; books wer...