S Structure

The definition of structure is multifaceted and can be explained on a variety of levels. In short, it is at once an entity and an arrangement of constituent parts that could be termed “structural elements,” which stand in a system of reciprocal relations. This chapter starts with a citation from the 1965 anthology Structure in Art and in Science, edited by György Kepes, the second volume in his Vision + Value series. Each volume contained essays by prominent contemporary artists, designers, architects, and scientists that presented cutting-edge scientific findings and artistic visions as a complex picture and publicized the concept of structure as the new organizing principle of the thinking at the time.

In the context of ZERO and structure, this anthology is also important because it paints a picture of the scientific discoveries around the middle of the twentieth century, including such momentous ones as the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA in 1953. It points up the connections between science and art that were of great importance to the art of the time and which led to the use of new technical media in artistic processes. Also of considerable significance for the development of the art of those years was structuralism, which the anthology also addresses.

The Vision + Value series grew out of seminars held from 1965 to 1966 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, where the editor who later became the first director of the Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS), György Kepes (1906–2001), taught. Texts by scientists, technologists, architects, and artists, including Max Bill (1908–1994) and art theorist Margit Staber (b. 1931), appeared in Structure in Art and in Science. For her chapter, Margit Staber used visual material that included the works Kompozycja unistyczna 9 (1931) by Władysław Strzemiński (1893–1952), and Calme (1960) by Otto Piene, to each of which we shall return later.

Max Bill and Margit Staber were also the authors of the catalog for the exhibition Konkrete Kunst: 50 Jahre Entwicklung (Concrete Art: 50 Years of Development), which took place in 1960 at the Helmhaus in Zurich. Particularly with regard to searching for the usage of the concept of structure in the work of the three ZERO artists Heinz Mack (b. 1931), Otto Piene (1928–2014), and Günther Uecker (b. 1930), Staber’s suggestion that the origin of its application was to be found in the development of Concrete Art pointed the way forward. In the catalog, she wrote:

The Zurich exhibition on the development of Concrete Art, which was the second organized by Max Bill, featured works by over one hundred international artists, and included works by Heinz Mack, Lichtrelief in Bewegung (Light Relief in Motion), 1959; Otto Piene, Rasterbild Calme (Grid Painting Calme), 1960; and Günther Uecker, Objekt Weiss (White Object), 1959; as well as by Władysław Strzemiński (1883–1952), Kompozycja unistyczna 9 (Unist Composition 9), 1931; and Kompozycja unistyczna 13 (1934). According to Dieter Honisch (1932–2004), the Zurich exhibition was the first opportunity Günther Uecker had to engage with the concept of Unism and the works of Władysław Strzemiński.[i] Uecker, however, claims to have spoken with Willem Sandberg (1897–1984) about the correspondence between Strzemiński and Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935) as early as the nineteen-fifties. Uecker said he knew the name of the Polish artist and theorist even before Max Bill’s Zurich exhibition:

[i] See Dieter Honisch, “O strukturze Günthera Ueckera,” in Günther Uecker Struktury, exh. cat. Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi (Łódź, 1974), p. 8. All quotations from this book were translated from the Polish into German by the author and into English by Gloria Custance.

Just how topical these theoretical ideas were was pointed out some thirty-four years later by Volker Adolphs (b. 1957) in his text Das schweigende Bild (The Silent Picture), which he wrote for the exhibition catalog of Strzemiński’s retrospective at the Kunstmuseum Bonn:

What was this Unism? Why does it seem worth mentioning in the context of an essay on structure in the work of the ZERO artists? To summarize: in the field of painting, this theory is based on the assumption that the essence of a painting is determined by the fact that the flat surface of the work, consisting of the applied paint, is bounded by a frame of certain dimensions.[i] It is an attempt to overcome the dualism of outline and plane, or space and form, which prevails in the creation of pictures. The picture represents a fixed unity of forms, the largest of which is the picture itself. The idea is that the effect of all forms and colors should be simultaneous and equal, which can be achieved through the subtle differentiation of color as well as texture, leading to an absolute rhythm of all forms. Anything that goes beyond these defined characteristics, such as movement, time, three-dimensionality, or pointers to references and content, must be rejected by the artist, as this stands in the way of the ideal integrity of the work. The picture becomes a subject, similar to an organism. It does not convey reality but becomes a kind of “being/existence itself.” This idea of Strzemiński’s was best visualized in his last Unist compositions, which were on display in the Zurich exhibition. His striving for a unified image, however, did not lead to the rejection of structure that results from the combination of organic lines and color planes. Adolphs explains this contradiction as follows:

[i] The first paintings from the Unism phase were painted with the ratio 8:5; the paintings from the last phase were square.

As illustrations for his text, Adolphs uses both Strzemiński’s Kompozycje unistyczna (Unistic Compositions) 9 and 11, of 1931 (one of which was also featured in the catalog of the Zurich exhibition and in the anthology Structure in Art and in Science, albeit mirrored), as well as Heinz Mack’s Dynamische Struktur auf Schwarz (Dynamic Structure in Black), 1961, and Günther Uecker’s Mathematische Reihung (Mathematical Array), 1963. In the text, Adolphs also points to a direct connection between the theory and the work of the ZERO artists: “The concept of structure of the artists from the German group ‘ZERO’ is likewise related, who in their works, however, were primarily concerned with releasing the energy of light and the attainment of a zero point, a new basis for art, through the purification of color.”[i]

Heinz Mack claims he only engaged with Unism after ZERO had ended. Proof of this is his schematic drawing from 1970 about the artist groupings around ZERO.[ii] And if one looks at Mack’s early work, the artist’s exploration of the concept of structure in his writings can be found as early as 1958. In his essay Die neue dynamische Struktur (The New Dynamic Structure) for the magazine ZERO 1, which appeared on the occasion of the 7th Evening Exhibition, Das rote Bild (The Red Painting), he writes about the importance of structure in pictorial design as well as about the unity of the picture that Strzemiński had aspired to so forcefully thirty years earlier:

[i] Ibid., p. 39.

[ii] See Kuhn 1991 (see note 6), p. 12.

Mack’s preoccupation with the structure zone in the context of dynamic structure is at odds with Strzemiński’s theoretical rejection of the appearance of movement in the painting. However, if we look at the Polish artist’s Unistic compositions, especially the final ones, we see how much his theory deviates from the real paintings, in which the repetitive monochrome color forms nevertheless seem to pulsate. Mack’s works also exhibit similar effects. In his structural paintings, the mechanical process of repetition creates “parallel zones” that endow the picture with a vibrant appearance and dynamic. Like Strzemiński’s Unistic Compositions,Mack’s paintings are freed from composition, with structure taking its place, whereby, for Mack—as Gerhard Charles Rump (1947–2020) emphasizes—a structure is not identical with a uniform grid.[i] Mack’s first Dynamic Structures were created in the late nineteen-fifties. The pictures were intended to convey the impression of pure emotion, which arises from intensive contemplation of the constantly changing, flickering vibrations. The structural elements utilized by Mack are composed in different lengths, vertically or horizontally, slightly oblique or straight. What appears to be arbitrary has in fact nothing to do with arbitrariness. Mack speaks of a new image space.[ii]

These are closed, rhythmic, pictorial systems. This rhythm, which is caused by a vibration in the eyes of the viewer, became a very important category for Mack in his artistic work. Rump even speaks of rhythm as a pictorial strategy:

[i] Gerhard Charles Rump, “Die Macht der Notwendigkeit: System der Struktur im Werk von Heinz Mack,” in Heinz Mack: Strukturen—Licht—Bewegung, exh. cat. Samuelis Baumgarte Galerie (Bielefeld, 2013), p. 2.

[ii] “This promises a new pictorial space. By pictorial space I understand the continuous integration of a number of individual spaces. The differentiated pictorial spaces become proportional to one another, producing a certain order. Above all, the new structural order of pictorial space will be determined by the space value of color and its frequency.… In turn, only through the structuring of color space is vibration of color possible at all. Movement will not only be realized on the surface of the painting but will also leap out at the observer unexpectedly. Depth of image becomes irrelevant. Representational-physical pictorial space should be done away with, even when it appears abstract.” Heinz Mack, quoted ibid., p. 15.

Rhythm in Mack’s pictorial work appears to be self-explanatory, given the artist’s great musical talent and knowledge of music theory.[i] Early on, he understood music notation as a system of signs, and even the paintings he submitted with his application for admission to the Düsseldorf Kunstakademie were abstract musical notations. Music and the piano have accompanied Mack throughout his life, and this double talent has found expression in his pictorial work. A good example of this is the painting Das Klavierkonzert (The Piano Concerto), of 1962, but this rhythm is also found in his photographs from the nineteen-fifties and nineteen-sixties, where he depicts the structural order of arable furrows or rows of trees. Mack talks about this link in an interview conducted by Heinz-Norbert Jocks (b. 1955):

[i] For more on this, see Heike von den Valentyn, “Die strukturelle Logik des Klanges: Von der Notation zum dynamischen Bildraum” (paper presented at the symposium Mack und Musik: eine Tagung zu Ehren von Heinz Mack,curated by Barbara Könches, ZERO Foundation, Düsseldorf).

The dynamic structure of these works is based not only on the repetitive, variously composed, note-like structural elements, but also on the existing light contrasts, regardless of the colors used (mostly white, gray, and black). His famous Light Reliefs from the same period are also subjected to the principle of rhythm and the play of light and dark. According to Thomas Beck, Mack’s oeuvre contains two approaches for dealing with light: first, light as the lightness value of color and objects that makes it possible to experience real light in spaces, to which category theDynamischen Strukturen (Dynamic Structures) belong.[i] The Lichtreliefs (Light Reliefs) belong to the second group. They still retain a pictorial form, but because this novel material is used, they already have the character of objects and can already be termed “Light Art.” In the Light Reliefs, which feature a highly polished aluminum foil relief on a plate, light can be experienced both through the contrast, as well as through the direct reflection of light. The works in this group also demonstrate references to the world of music, as with Meine kleine Klaviatur (My Small Keyboard), 1960. In the third ZERO magazine, Mack titles his contribution the Sahara-Projekt: Station 10. Die Lichtreliefs:

[i] See Thomas Beck, “Licht als Thema im Werk von Heinz Mack: Eine Analyse der ästhetischen Grundlagen,” in Klaus Gereon Beuckers, ed., ZERO-Studien: Aufsätze zur Düsseldorfer Gruppe ZERO und ihrem Umkreis (Münster, 1997), pp. 11–52.

In the later development of his artistic process, Mack transferred the Light Reliefs to new sculptural carriers, but in painting, to which he later returned, he remained faithful to the medium of the structural image.

The revolutionary power of the Light Reliefs was also noticed by Max Bill. Mack’s Struktur der Bewegung (Structure of Motion), 1959, appeared in the catalog of the exhibition Konkrete Kunst: 50 Jahre Entwicklung (Concrete Art: 50 Years of Development), where it is frequently mentioned. With Struktur der Bewegung, one can already speak of an installation, since Mack departs from the principle of two-dimensionality of the image in favor of three-dimensionality. From Otto Piene’s oeuvre, the renowned artist colleague and exhibition curator Max Bill chose one of his early Grid Paintings, Calme (1959). Two years earlier, according to Ursula Perucchi-Petri, the first painting in this series, Frequenz (Frequency), was created. In her text “Otto Piene und ZERO,” she compares the structural composition of these images to Unist thinking, which contrasted image structure with image composition.[i] It was with the Rasterbilder (Grid Paintings or Stencilled Paintings), which were to assume a key position in his work, that Piene achieved his artistic breakthrough at this time.[ii] To create his Grid Paintings, Piene used stencils with systematic perforations, which he made himself. These early works, still structured very geometrically, also exhibit slight irregularities in the resulting colored dots and circles. The painting Calme, on the other hand, already exhibits very clearly a varied structure: geometry gives way to the complex vibrations of colorless surfaces of various depths, which are sometimes almost flat. Rather like Mack’s structural paintings, the shadow play of light has a decisive role in the facture. Piene investigates the effect of paint/color as a material and as a medium of light, which he applies to the canvas through the screens.

In ZERO 1, Piene writes:

[i] See Ursula Perucchi-Petri, “Otto Piene und ZERO,” in Ante Glibota, ed., Otto Piene (Villorba, 2011), pp. 253–75.

[ii] Lawrence Alloway refers to the Rasterbilder as “Stencilled Paintings” in his preface, “Viva Zero,” in Mack and Piene 1973 (see note 14), pp. ix–xiv.

The Grid Paintings were created with bright colors like white, silver, gold, and yellow, which best reflect light.

The restriction to one color in the painting was connected to the ZERO artists’ deliberate reduction of their means of expression, but it was also intended to lead to a better articulation of light and structure in the artwork.

Piene’s color scheme changed with the next phase, the Rauchzeichnungen (Smoke Drawings), which were created as early as 1959. This was connected to the new production process and the very unusual material used. In these pictures, the artistic process undergoes an even further reduction, and the artist leaves the creative act largely to the effect of the medium of smoke.

The two most important elements continue to be the structure and the movement in which the smoke blotches, dots, or streaks overlap or cluster. Although the consistency of the surface loses its relief-like character, compared to the colorful Grid Paintings, and the light effect is reduced to the contrast of black and white, the Smoke Drawings evoke the effect of dynamic movement in the viewer, though they are much more dependent on the viewer’s active vision.

Like Heinz Mack, Otto Piene’s development of new creative options called into question the traditional picture or image, turning it into more of an object that, freed from composition and representation, expands in space through its vibrations.

The changed artistic process, in which the creator renounces the use of classic painterly tools, is even more obvious in the works of Günther Uecker. According to Honisch, Uecker was the most radical of the ZERO artists and the most consistent in how he engaged with structure in his works. He remained true to his archaic way of working, while Mack and Piene, after a structure-oriented phase, shifted the solution of their artistic problems to the technological level.[i]

In his text “Über die Struktur von Günther Uecker” (“On the Structure of Günther Uecker”), Honisch examines the development of twentieth-century art up to the nineteen-seventies, and advances the hypothesis that during this period there is a shift from the pictorial composition to the structural image. He speaks of a new definition of reality in the image:

[i] See Honisch 1974 (see note 2), p. 8.

In analyzing the artistic development in Uecker’s early work, Honisch also makes a comparison with Strzemiński’s theory. For Honisch, the significant element in the Polish artist’s work appears to be the fact that Strzemiński replaces the antithesis of composition and construction, which draw their validity from outside, with a structure that has meaning in and of itself.[i] This constituted the topicality of his thought and made him the “father” of a new awareness, also for the art of ZERO, which was no longer reproductive but immanent, concrete, and self-determined. Although Uecker did not refer directly to Strzemiński’s work in connection with his own, he found confirmation of his artistic practice in the Polish artist’s theory. That Uecker held Strzemiński in high esteem is shown by the fact that he donated his painting Das weisse Feld—Hommage à Strzemiński (1970) to the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, where Uecker’s first monographic exhibition in Poland was held in 1974 (Honisch contributing a text to the show’s catalog). In his engagement with structure, Uecker demonstrates considerable consistency. He is interested in the problems of designing neutral images without contrasts and drama. The structure in his works is created by the utilization of lines, stripes, and dots, but also by the varying density of nails painted white. He gave his works indicative titles such as Open Structure, Hanging Structure, Symmetrical Structure, Light Structure,Organic Structure, and Light Modulation. In the beginning, the structure remained enclosed within the picture, as, for example, in Perforations. As of 1958 it takes over the surface of the picture. It occupies the entire surface from edge to edge. The hierarchy disappears. The structures are imprecise and arise spontaneously, which conveys the impression of an individual attitude that is characteristic of Uecker. The artist does not lay down any fixed forms for the picture’s carrier; the works are rectangular or almost square; the colors monochrome, limited to red, white, yellow, and black. One could speak here of a Unistic pictorial structure, since it is about unifying the pictorial field. Uecker, however, develops the structural idea further by giving it a spatial effect through the insertion of nails. The Nail Pictures develop a strong play of light and shadow and an aggressive dynamic. The structure has detached itself from the picture’s surface.

If one looks at the work of the three ZERO protagonists from the aspect of structure, it not only becomes clear just how far understanding of the picture-making process has moved away from the tradition of the brush as a tool, but also how the personality of the artist has receded into the background. The foreground is left to the viewer. This is especially true of the transition from two- to three-dimensionality and finally, with the environment projects, to four-dimensionality, in which time plays a decisive role.

[i] See ibid., p. 6.

Five years before Uecker’s exhibition at the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, a major exhibition of works by Henryk Stażewski (1894–1988) took place in the same rooms, which featured mainly white reliefs. Stażewski produced his first reliefs in the late nineteen-fifties, when he had already been acknowledged as the intellectual “father” of the Polish avant-garde for many years. He was already over sixty years old, and thus quite “grown up.” His discovery of this new form of expression supplanted purely painterly media in his creative practice for almost twenty years. Like other representatives of geometric abstraction, Stażewski believed that art should follow the example of science and search for the basic principles of reality.

Stażewski created art for many years in the spirit of the theory of Unism as formulated by Władysław Strzemiński. The two artists, who were almost the same age, were close friends for a long time and worked together in artist groups such as BLOK and artyści rewolucyjni (“a.r.”), with whom they founded the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź.[i] In the interwar period Stażewski concentrated on geometric abstraction. He was also inspired by the Dutch group De Stijl, advocates of the theory known as “Neoplasticism,” “Nieuwe Beelding,” or the “new image.”

The exhibition Konkrete Kunst, already mentioned several times in this essay, exhibited Stażewski’s Geometric Composition (1930), but none of his reliefs. In this new group of works, Stażewski expanded the Unistic picture by introducing the third dimension. While the first reliefs were made of wood and painted white, for the later ones he used metal and multiplied the number of repeating elements.

[i] “In 1929 my parents left ‘Praesens’ and together with Henryk Stażewski founded ‘a.r.’ (artyści rewolucyjni [revolutionary artists]—awangarda rzeczywista [real avant-garde]). The reason they left was differences of opinion about the goals and functions of art. The ‘a.r.’ group was soon joined by poets of the Kraków avant-garde—Jan Brzękowski and Julian Przyboś. The group’s goal—apart from integrating various areas of art and publishing—was to establish an International Collection of Modern Art in Poland. Strzemiński’s efforts to house it in the National Museum in Warsaw failed. Only after much effort did he finally succeed in gaining the support of the Łódź City Council for the initiative of the ‘a.r.’ group. Its members began—on my father’s initiative—to gather together works of art for the future collection. In Poland, Katarzyna Kobro and Władysław Strzemiński were involved, and in France Jan Brzękowski, Stanisław Grabowski, and Henryk Stażewski.” Nika Strzemińska, “Władysław Strzemiński: Mensch und Künstler,” in Władysław Strzemiński 1893–1952 1994 (see note 9), p. 133.

In contrast to the Unistic idea of the flat picture, the introduction of the relief elements resulted in completely new effects. It created a play of light, shadow, and vibration, which is intensified by the viewer’s movements. Here one can already speak of kinetics within the artwork, or more precisely in the eye of the viewer, which then finds its completion in the moving reliefs.

As with the ZERO protagonists, the effect of the picture object continues within the space. In some of Stażewski’s reliefs, one can discern a strong resemblance to Mack’s Light Reliefs.However, the likelihood that the artists knew about each other’s work at the time is minimal, as the possibilities for Polish artists to enter into exchanges with the West after World War II were very limited. Notwithstanding, some developments in the art scene were much more rapid; one of these is the exploration of structure within the picture. As an example, we shall consider the work of Wrocław artist Jerzy Rosołowicz (1928–1982), whose paintings and optical objects are in the collection of the National Museum in Wrocław. At the end of the nineteen-fifties, Rosołowicz created his first paintings that had a structural character, for which he used a mixture of paint and plaster. In the nineteen-sixties, they became rhythmic compositions reminiscent of microphotographs of organic forms, with a certain allusion to Unist painting. Rosołowicz, however, was more interested in Strzemiński’s theory of vision. He called his structural paintings “Neutrons,” which expressed his search for a neutralizing effect of art on reality. For Rosołowicz, art’s mission was to contribute to a more harmonious relationship between technological civilization, cultural products, and the natural environment. He was convinced that the modern world was having an extremely negative impact on nature. In his theoretical texts he proposed the idea of art as a “neutral action” that would help to bring order and peace.

In the spherical reliefs he created after 1967, he used glass lenses melted together with polychrome wood, metal, or a glass plate, as he had done in the Neutronicons series. As with the ZERO artists, the focus here is on the effect of moving light on the viewer. Like the ZERO artists, he positions the objects within space. Mostly they float in the air and visitors can walk around them and look at them from all sides. The artwork thus loses its two- and three-dimensional boundaries and finds its continuation in the gaze of the moving viewer.

In connection with the discussion around the middle of the twentieth century about the role of structure and its situatedness in art, in artistic practice the panel painting becomes detached from the object and there is a trend toward the design of spaces. This goes hand in hand with the advent of new materials and media being used in art, as well as with the decline of the artwork seen as the product of a unique artist, in favor of interactive works of art. This was achieved by reducing the composition to the point of its ultimate dissolution in favor of structure and monochromy.

Light and movement are now the main themes.

This text has been translated from German into English by Gloria Custance.