Otto Piene

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Overview

Earth image, 1996

Oil, fire, smoke on canvas
18 × 24 cm
Signed, dated, titled, with dedication and directional arrow on verso With dedication and directional arrow.
Provenance:
Studio of the artist
Gift from the artist to his granddaughter
Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia
The work entitled "Erdbild", created in 1996, is one of Otto Piene's "fire pictures", which have retained a central significance in the artist's work since they were first created in 1961 in numerous colour and technical modifications. What they have in common are, on the one hand, circular volumes as essential and recurring elements and, on the other, their specific character, which links them to processes and forms in nature and the cosmos. In addition to picture titles such as "La lune en rondage" (1961), "Die Sonne brennt" (1966), "Feuerblume" (1966) or "Erdbild", the inclusion of fire in their creation points to such a link. With the latter, Piene pursues the intention of "allowing painting to occur as a directed, self-acting process, like the process of becoming in nature". Although initiated and in a certain sense directed by the artist, the power of fire can only be controlled up to a certain point: a self-acting, 'natural' process begins in the creation of the artwork.
With the title "Erdbild" and its colour scheme, Piene succeeds in making associations with the role of fire in the formation of the earth and the fiery nature of the earth's interior, which can be both destructive and enable new life when it erupts. Anette Brunner