Witness to Phenomenon: Group Zero and the Development of New Media in Postwar European Art (International Texts in Critical Media Aesthetics)

"Witness of Phenomenon articulates a fresh examination of the German Group Zero--Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, and Günter Uecker--and other new tendency artists, who rejected painting and introduced new art media in postwar Europe. Group ZERO evolved into a network across Europe--Amsterdam, Milan, Paris, and Zagreb. This pan-European affiliation of artists generated a continuous stream of innovative artistic statements through the 1960s, incorporating non-traditional materials and new technologies to create kinetic art, light installations, performances, immersive multimedia installations, monumental land art, and the communication media of video and television. They transformed the visual arts from the inanimate objet d'art to a sensory experience by adopting the ascendant philosophy of Phenomenology as their conceptual foundation. Drawing from a decade of research on unpublished archives of the artists and critics of this period, this publication positions Group ZERO as a catalytic art moment in the transition from modern to contemporary art. N.B. Please ensure that any images originally supplied in colour are supplied in greyscale for print deliverables (print and POD PDFs) and colour for all others (including eBook and XML)"--Bloomsbury Publishing. Witness of Phenomenon articulates a fresh examination of the German Group Zero-Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, and Günter Uecker-and other new tendency artists, who rejected painting and introduced new art media in postwar Europe. Group ZERO evolved into a network across Europe- Amsterdam, Milan, Paris, and Zagreb. This pan-European affiliation of artists generated a continuous stream of innovative artistic statements through the 1960s, incorporating non-traditional materials and new technologies to create kinetic art, light installations, performances, immersive multimedia installations, monumental land art, and the communication media of video and television. They transformed the visual arts from the inanimate objet d'art to a sensory experience by adopting the ascendant philosophy of Phenomenology as their conceptual foundation. Drawing from a decade of research on unpublished archives of the artists and critics of this period, this publication positions Group ZERO as a catalytic art moment in the transition from modern to contemporary art.-- Provided by publisher Witness to Phenomenon articulates a fresh examination of the German Group Zero-Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, and Günter Uecker-and other new tendency artists, who rejected painting and introduced new art media in postwar Europe. Group ZERO evolved into a network across Europe- Amsterdam, Milan, Paris, and Zagreb. This pan-European affiliation of artists generated a continuous stream of innovative artistic statements through the 1960s, incorporating non-traditional materials and new technologies to create kinetic art, light installations, performances, immersive multimedia installations, monumental land art, and the communication media of video and television. They transformed the visual arts from the inanimate objet d'art to a sensory experience by adopting the ascendant philosophy of Phenomenology as their conceptual foundation. Drawing from a decade of research on unpublished archives of the artists and critics of this period, this publication positions Group ZERO as a catalytic art moment in the transition from modern to contemporary art. Witness of Phenomenon' articulates a fresh examination of the German Group Zero-Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, and Gunter Uecker-and other new tendency artists, who rejected painting and introduced new art media in postwar Europe. Group ZERO evolved into a network across Europe- Amsterdam, Milan, Paris, and Zagreb. This pan-European affiliation of artists generated a continuous stream of innovative artistic statements through the 1960s, incorporating non-traditional materials and new technologies to create kinetic art, light installations, performances, immersive multimedia installations, monumental land art, and the communication media of video and television. They transformed the visual arts from the inanimate objet d'art to a sensory experience by adopting the ascendant philosophy of Phenomenology as their conceptual foundation. Drawing from a decade of research on unpublished archives of the artists and critics of this period, this publication positions Group ZERO as a catalytic art moment in the transition from modern to contemporary art Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 List of Illustrations 7 Acknowledgments 17 Introduction 22 Notes 32 Chapter 1 Europe After the Rain: Un art autre, art informel 36 Notes 64 Chapter 2 “Does Contemporary Painting Influence the Shape of the World?”: The Problem of Painting and the Question of Reality 70 Notes 113 Chapter 3 ZERO, the New Tendency, and New Media 122 Notes 156 Chapter 4 Artistsʼ Actions into Theater 164 Notes 189 Chapter 5 Aistheton: Immersive Multimedia Environments 194 Notes 219 Chapter 6 The Vision of Television 226 Notes 263 Chapter 7 Coda 272 Notes 285 Selected Bibliography 288 Archival sources 288 Primary and secondary resources 288 Index 303 AcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter 1: Europe After the Rain: Un art autre, art informelChapter 2: "Does Contemporary Painting Influence the Shape of the World?": The Problem of Painting and the Question of RealityChapter 3: ZERO, the New Tendency, and New MediaChapter 4: Artists Actions into TheaterChapter 5: Aistheton: Immersive Multimedia EnvironmentsChapter 6: The Vision of TelevisionChapter 7: CodaEndnotesBibliography