W Women

When Heinz Mack (b. 1931) and Otto Piene (1928–2014) began organizing exhibitions in their Düsseldorf studio at Gladbacher Strasse 69 in 1957, they were both members of Gruppe 53, “a circle of mainly young artists full of ideas, many of whom would later become part of the avant-garde, who came together in the short term in an initiative directed at the future.”[i] In the first Evening Exhibitions, the choice of program and artists corresponded to Gruppe 53, which was defined by Art Informel. It was not until the 4th Evening Exhibition, which Piene regarded as the decisive one,[ii] that he and Mack turned away from Art Informel and embarked on the artistic and theoretical path that led to ZERO, whose “birth” thus coincided with the 7th Evening Exhibition and the group’s eponymous publication.

Prior to this, two artists from Gruppe 53 had been involved in the 2nd Evening Exhibition: Herta Junghanns-Grulich (1912–1990) and Anneliese Külzer-Winter (1921–1965).[iii]

[i] Marie-Luise Otten, “Auf dem Weg zur Avantgarde: Künstler der ‘Gruppe 53,’” in Marie-Luise Otten, ed., Auf dem Weg zur Avantgarde: Künstler der Gruppe 53, exh. cat. Museum der Stadt Ratingen (Heidelberg, 2003), p. 9. Unless otherwise stated, all quotations have been translated from German into English by Gloria Custance.

[ii] Otto Piene, handwritten text, Groton, Massachusetts, January 2, 1998, Otto Piene archive at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.

[iii] Other participants included Fritz Bierhoff, Claus Fischer, Fathwinter, Albert Fürst, Herbert Götzinger, and Rolf Sackenheim.

Herta Junghanns-Grulich, who is almost forgotten today, painted her last representational picture in 1941,[i]and from that point onward experimented with pigments and chemicals with the intention of making movement visible. She was fascinated by chemical and biological processes,[ii] which she thematized in works such as Am Rande der Strömung (At the Current’s Edge), pre-1961; Blaues Bild II. Photosynthesis (Blue Picture II. Photosynthesis), pre-1976; and Horizontal-dynamisch (Horizontal dynamic), 1950/55. If you look at these paintings, you can see the broad, flat strokes of paint, and the formal treatment of the paint itself is certainly related to the paintings produced by Heinz Mack and Otto Piene at that time.

[i] Otten 2003 (see note 2), pp. 210–11.

[ii] For example, with her husband, Georg Grulich, she attended lectures at the Kant Society and the Society of Natural Sciences. See Georg Grulich to Herta Junghanns-Grulich, Düsseldorf, May 1991, Herta Junghanns-Grulich estate, Düsseldorf.

Although the paint in Junghanns-Grulich’s works is both applied and removed with scraper and spatula, strongly echoing Art Informel, her paintings are distinguished by a clear brightness and by their vibrant light effects. During the Second World War, the artist had to do without paints and canvases, and she began to weave fabric pictures from remnants of wool. Evidently, the underlying woven structure exerted an influence on her future artistic work. And it was this structure that fit very well into the gradually evolving stylistic spectrum of ZERO art. Mack and Piene clearly appreciated her work, as she was again invited to participate in the 7th Evening Exhibition,[i] and Piene visited her studio with his students from the fashion school.[ii]

[i] Lists of artists to be invited, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. nos. mkp.ZERO.2.IV.67 and mkp.ZERO.2.IV.68.

[ii] See Grulich 1991 (see note 6).

At the legendary 7th Evening Exhibition, entitled Das rote Bild (The Red Painting), forty-two male artists were represented and three female artists: Junghanns-Grulich, Hanne Brenken, and Hal (Hannelore) Busse (1926–2018). With regard to the circumstances of the invitation of the first two artists, silence prevails in the ZERO foundation archive.[i]

The situation is different in the case of Hal Busse. On March 9, 1958, Otto Piene wrote to “Dear Mrs. Busse!” that he had received her address from “Mr. Seitz, who sends you his regards.”[ii]

[i] This was certainly related to the fact that all the artists lived in Düsseldorf.

[ii] See Fritz Seitz to Otto Piene, March 6, 1958, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.2.853. In the early ZERO years, Mack and Piene carried on a lively correspondence with artist, graphic designer, and author Fritz Seitz (1926–2017).

Two days later, Piene replied diplomatically:

Which she did![i]

[i] See the card from Hal Busse to Otto Piene, Stuttgart, March 21, 1958, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.2.I.812_1. Petra Gördüren suspects that Busse showed three pictures, because she had noted on Piene’s invitation: “1. red painting 2 [sic] nail reliefs” (Hal Busse archive, Hamburg). It can be assumed that these are numbers denoting the order and that the full stop is missing from the number two. In view of the size of the premises at Gladbacher Strasse 69, and that works from forty-five artists were in the exhibition, it is extremely unlikely that Busse was able to show three works. See Petra Gördüren, “‘Bin ich dann heute gegenständlich und morgen nicht?’ Hal Busses künstlerischer Werdegang zwischen Figuration und Abstraktion,” in Petra Gördüren and Dorothea Schöne, eds., Hal Busse: Das Frühwerk 1950–70, exh. cat. Kunsthaus Dahlem (Berlin, 2019), pp. 12–41. The consignment note preserved in the Piene estate states that “1 box of artworks” insured for DM 515 was despatched by Hal Busse on April 14, 1958. Archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.2.III.170.

To her regret, Busse did not see the 7th Evening Exhibition—“Düsseldorf is unfortunately a bit too far”[i] from Stuttgart, where Busse lived with her husband Klaus Bendixen. But what actually were her two contributions to the exhibition The Red Painting, at Gladbacher Strasse 69 in Düsseldorf?

Hal Busse noted on a reproduction of one of her works: “In the exhibition IM MATERIAL [In the Material], a correction to the Red Nail Relief in the catalog.”[ii] And below the reproduction: “This picture hung with the Red Nail Relief in Düsseldorf in 1958. Exhibition The Red Painting, Düsseldorf 1958 opening, exhibited together with the Nail Relief, which is owned by the Galerie der Stadt Stuttgart. Please change the year 1959 to 1958.”[iii]

[i] See the letter from Hal Busse to Otto Piene, n.d., archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.2.I.814.

[ii] Hal Busse archive, Hamburg. See Barbara Heuss-Czisch and Angelika Weissbecher, eds., Im Material: Objekte und Assemblagen der 60er Jahre in Stuttgart, exh. cat. Württembergischer Kunstverein (Stuttgart, 1986), p. 31.

[iii] As Frederik Schikowski has shown, Busse dated works retrospectively—also to her disadvantage. See Frederik Schikowski, “Hal Busses ‘Montagen’: Ein kaum bekannter Beitrag zur frühen konkret-konstruktiven Kunst der Bundesrepublik,” in Gördüren and Schöne2019 (see note 14), pp. 42–57.

Busse requested that both works should be returned quickly, as she wanted to show them at a “collective exhibition” in Stuttgart in mid-May.[i] Apparently, she did not meet with either Piene or Mack at this time. Instead, she sent her regards to Heinz Mack and added: “H. Mack came to see us here once but we were not in.”[ii]

In June that year, Piene promised to make a trip to Swabia and get in touch.[iii] Their correspondence became literally more cordial. In July, Busse reported that she had returned from Venice, “where some [illegible adjective] is interesting at the Biennale.… Your yellow painting is still very fresh in my mind even after this international art market, which is definitely … instructive and stimulating, much more than the Künstlerbund [Association of German Artists] exhibition.”[iv] The aforementioned Künstlerbund exhibition took place from May 17 to July 13, 1958, in the Grugahallen in Essen. Hal Busse and Klaus Bendixen each exhibited one work, and Heinz Mack and Otto Piene were represented with two works each—Piene with the Rasterbild (Grid Painting) Hell Gelb Hell (1958).[v] Busse may have been referring to this painting in her letter. Perhaps she recognized in Piene’s works a kindred spirit, for her major work Bild 58, gelb (1958) was created the same year. It is even possible that Piene’s yellow Grid Painting inspired the Stuttgart artist to create her work. However, although superficially there is a certain similarity in the form of the yellow dots, the works are based on completely different stylistic premises: Piene’s results from experiments with screens and grid stencils, and Busse’s from a profoundly painterly attitude based on the shimmering lights of Impressionism.[vi]

[i] Hal Busse to Otto Piene, n.d., archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.2.I.814. There is no mention of a group exhibition in Stuttgart in 1958 either in the exhibition catalog for Hal Busse (Gördüren and Schöne 2019, see note 14) or in that for Farben, die blühen: Die Malerin Hal Busse (ed. Marc Gundel, exh. cat. Städtische Museen, Heilbronn, 2006). However, she did have a solo show in Stuttgart in 1958: Hal Busse: Bilder und Montagen, at Galerie Behr.

[ii] Letter from Hal Busse to Otto Piene, Stuttgart, May 9, 1958, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.2.I.815.

[iii] Card from Otto Piene to Hal Busse, Düsseldorf, June 17, 1958, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.2.I.814.

[iv] Card from Hal Busse to Otto Piene, Stuttgart, July 3, 1958, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.2.I.818.

[v] The exhibition catalog includes the entry: “Otto Piene, Gelbhellgelb [sic], 1958, 78 x 96 cm, oil.” See Deutscher Künstlerbund, Achte Ausstellung, mit Sonderausstellung Handzeichnungen, exh. cat. Grugahallen (Essen, 1958), n.p.

[vi] See Barbara Könches, “Klatschmohnfelder in der Zone Null: Hal Busse und die Gruppe ZERO,” in Ute Eggeling and Michael Beck, eds., Hal Busse: Eine Wiederentdeckung (Düsseldorf, 2023), pp. 42–45.

Yet the art scenes in Düsseldorf and Stuttgart were not only brought into contact with each other at Fritz Seitz’s recommendation, but also through the artists Peter Brüning (1929–1970)[i] and Klaus Jürgen-Fischer (1930–2017),[ii] who had both studied at the Art Academy in Stuttgart with Willi Baumeister and were fellow students of Klaus Bendixen. Jürgen-Fischer, who initially belonged to the ZERO artists’ circle of friends, organized the 1959 exhibition Stringenz: Nuove tendenze tedesche at the Galleria Pagani del Grattacielo in Milan, to which he invited Hal Busse, Oskar Holweck (1924–2007), Norbert Kricke (1922–1984), Heinz Mack, Almir Mavignier (1925–2018), Günther Sellung (b. 1925), and Hans-Peter Vorberg, as well as showing his own works.[iii]

In the 1961 exhibition 30 junge Deutsche (30 Young Germans),[iv] curated by Udo Kultermann, director of the Städtisches Museum Leverkusen Schloss Morsbroich, works by the ZERO artists Mack, Piene, Uecker (b. 1930), Hermann Goepfert (1926–1982), Oskar Holweck, and Uli Pohl (b. 1935) again came together with those of Hal Busse. Only two years later, the Gesellschaft zur Aktivierung von Kunst und Wissenschaft (Society for the Activation of Art and Science) once again invited Busse to participate in the ZERO exhibition at the Diogenes Gallery in Berlin; however, the invitation arrived too late for her to participate.[v]

[i] Like Mack and Piene, Peter Brüning belonged to Gruppe 53 and was represented in the 1st, 4th, and 7th Evening Exhibitions.

[ii] Klaus Jürgen-Fischer, schoolfriend of Heinz Mack, artist, and art critic of the magazine Das Kunstwerk (Ägis publishers, Baden-Baden), was responsible for issuing the invitations to the 6th Evening Exhibition, his solo show, at Gladbacher Strasse 69.

[iii] Klaus Jürgen-Fischer to Heinz Mack, Baden-Baden, September 25, 1959, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.2.I.62. See also Jürgen-Fischer to Heinz Mack, Baden-Baden, November 19, 1959, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Heinz Mack, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.1.159.

[iv] See Udo Kultermann, ed., 30 junge Deutsche: Architektur, Plastik, Malerei, Graphik, exh. cat. Städtisches Museum Leverkusen Schloss Morsbroich (Leverkusen, 1961), archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Heinz Mack, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.1.VII.250.

[v] In the Hal Busse archive in Hamburg, there is a letter dated March 20, 1963, inviting the artist to participate at very short notice—the exhibition opened on March 30, 1963. The invitation had first been sent to Hölderlinstrasse in Stuttgart, where Busse had not lived since 1961. Notes written on the envelope state “Forwarded to Hamburg; Changed address there in the meantime; Forwarded ….” In view of the fact that she would have only had a maximum of nine days, even if the first address had been correct, and in view of the subsequent progress of the errant mail, her participation in the exhibition seems highly unlikely. In the exhibition catalogs by Gördüren and Schöne (2019, see note 14) and Gundel (2006, see note 18), the exhibition is listed. Busse herself does not mention it in a handwritten CV in the Hal Busse archive, Hamburg.

Nevertheless, completely unnoticed and unremarked, Hal Busse contributed to the ZERO publications. At the end of ZERO 3, the legendary third ZERO magazine, there is a picture atlas consisting of twenty-five grids of images that is spread over seven pages. One of the square tiles contains a photo of Busse’s Nail Relief (yellow—blue—red), ca. 1958, which is alongside images of artworks such as “Piene, Constant, Takis, Moldow,” and images from the fields of “physics, agriculture,” and “architecture.”[i]

[i] ZERO 3 (1961), in Dirk Pörschmann and Mattijs Visser, eds., ZERO 4321 (Düsseldorf, 2012), n.p. Not a single work by a female artist was included in the magazine, but women were represented as photographers: Hilla Wobeser, who later became world-famous as Hilla Becher, photographed the works of Günther Uecker. Vera Spoerrri and Martha Rocher photographed works by Jean Tinguely.

Thanks to their friendship with actor and gallery owner Günter Meisner (1926–1994), Mack, Piene, and Uecker (b. 1930) were given the opportunity to curate the aforementioned ZERO exhibition in Berlin. With the high total of forty-four international artists participating,[i] the Berlin event is reminiscent of the 7th Evening Exhibition. However, whereas three female artists participated in The Red Painting, five years later this number had dropped to two: Rango Heusser-Bohne (1932–2021) and Dadamaino.[ii]

Edoarda Emilia Maino, known as Dadamaino, who lived in Milan, was well known to the Düsseldorf ZERO artists through her Italian friends. “Until the closure of the gallery [Azimut] in July 1960, Castellani and Manzoni organized a compact cycle of twelve exhibitions in a friendly collaboration with their spiritus rector Lucio Fontana and the young artist Dadamaino,” according to Renate Damsch-Wiehager.[iii]

[i] In addition to German artists, colleagues from Italy, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland were also invited.

[ii] I regard the participation of Hal Busse as unlikely (as explained in note 28). The exhibition took place from March 30 to April 30, 1963, at the Galerie Diogenes, Bleibtreustrasse 7, West Berlin. Meisner ran the gallery on behalf of the Gesellschaft zur Aktivierung von Kunst und Wissenschaft (Society for the Activation of Art and Science).

[iii] Renate Damsch-Wiehager, “Eine Linie von unendlicher Länge,” in Renate Damsch-Wiehager, ed., ZERO Italien: Azimut/Azimuth 1959/60 in Mailand. Und heute, exh. cat. Villa Merkel (Esslingen and Ostfildern, 1996), p. 11.

Dadamaino was the only artist about whom Manzoni ever wrote a text. It culminated in the euphoric statement: “Her [Dadamaino’s] paintings are banners of a new world, are a new meaning: they are not content with saying something else, they say new things.”[i] And some thirty years later, the philosopher, critic, and painter Gillo Dorfles (1910–2018) explained what “new things” she was saying in her art:

[i] Piero Manzoni, “Dadamaino,” in ibid., p.94.

When did the Düsseldorf ZERO artists and Dadamaino meet for the first time? In a short aside in a letter dated December 1962, Heinz Mack mentions that the artist had been in Düsseldorf over a year ago.[i]However, intensive correspondence between Milan and Düsseldorf had only begun on September 20, 1962, with a letter from Dadamaino to Otto Piene.[ii] Just three weeks later, Dadamaino contacted Piene again and suggested that he make a presentation in the gallery of the architect Arturo Cadario, where Fontana (1899–1968) also exhibited. Cadario was going to publish a book about the “Nouvelles Tendances,” which Umbro Apollonio (1911–1981) was writing.[iii] In her next message, the Italian artist addressed all three Düsseldorf “ZEROists,” requesting them to send photos of artworks, artist portraits, and biographies, which she would like to send to Nobuya Abe (1913–1971). Abe was about to write a major article on the New Tendencies, which would be published in a Japanese magazine, and—Dadamaino announced—might also lead to an exhibition in Tokyo.[iv]

On February 9, 1963, Dadamaino informed Piene and the other colleagues of the sudden death of Piero Manzoni.[v] At virtually the same time, Heinz Mack was in contact with the artist, informing her that an exhibition was planned for March 1963 in Berlin, and that the Düsseldorf ZERO artists would be happy if she were to participate and show one of her works.[vi] He also asks her:

[i] “When you had been here more than a year ago,” Heinz Mack to Dadamaino, December 27, 1962, Archivio Dadamaino, Somma Lombardo, Italy. A meeting must therefore have taken place in mid-1961.

[ii] In the archives of the ZERO foundation and the Archivio Dadamaino there are sixty-seven items of correspondence between Dadamaino and Piene, and forty-one items of correspondence between Dadamaino and Mack.

[iii] Dadamaino to Otto Piene, Milan, October 10, 1962, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.2.I.2809.

[iv] Dadamaino to Otto Piene, Heinz Mack, and Günther Uecker, Milan, December 12, 1962, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.2.I.1436.

[v] Dadamaino to Otto Piene, Milan, February 9, 1963, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.2.I.1356. See also the message of condolence from Otto Piene to Dadamaino, Düsseldorf, March 2, 1963, Archivio Dadamaino, Somma Lombardo, Italy.

[vi] Heinz Mack to Dadamaino, Düsseldorf, February 11, 1963, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Heinz Mack, inv. no.  ZERO.1.I.149.

Dadamaino replied quickly with her suggestions for Berlin: “Getulio, Toni Costa, Bruno Munari, Enzo Mari.”[i] In the same letter, she told Mack that she had shown one of his reliefs to Cadario and that he was very interested. “So if you like, I could take an interest in [advancing] an exhibition of yours [at the Cadario gallery] as well.”[ii]

[i] Dadamaino to Mack, Milan, February 15, 1963, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Heinz Mack, inv. no. ZERO.1.I.150. Getulio Alviani (1939–2018) and Bruno Munari (1907–1998), both proposed by Dadamaino, took part in the exhibition.

[ii] “Alors si vous voulez, je pouvrai m’interesser aussi pour une votre exposition [à la galerie Cadario].” Ibid.

It is quite obvious that Dadamaino belonged to the inner circle of ZERO: she organized exhibitions,[i] brokered contacts—for example, between Otto Piene and Gillo Dorfles[ii]—and took care of collectors personally;[iii] “the spirit of ZERO will always be alive if artists like you engage with such verve!” wrote Piene, acknowledging her efforts.[iv]

[i] Dadamaino to Otto Piene, Milan, December 7, 1962 (Neue Tendenzen exhibition at Galleria Cadario), archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.2.I.2811; Otto Piene to Dadamaino, Düsseldorf, May 1, 1963 (exhibition in Madrid), Archivio Dadamaino, Somma Lombardo, Italy; Otto Piene to Dadamaino, Düsseldorf, November 9, 1962 (Piene solo show at Galleria Cadario, Milan), Archivio Dadamaino, Somma Lombardo; Dadamaino to Heinz Mack, Milan, February 15, 1963, (Mack solo show at Galleria Cadario, Milan), archive of the ZERO Foundation, estate of Heinz Mack, inv. nos. mkp.ZERO.1.I.150, mkp.ZERO.1.I.147, mkp.ZERO.1.I.152, mkp.ZERO.1.I.153, and mkp.ZERO.1.I.154.

[ii] Dadamaino to Otto Piene, Milan, April 16, 1963, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.2.I.2812. In the same letter, Dadamaino writes that she is in contact with Luis Gonzales Robles, Commissioner of La Biennale di Venezia for Spain, who intends to organize an exhibition on the New Tendencies at a museum in Madrid.

[iii] Dadamaino to Otto Piene, Milan, October 7, 1963, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. nos. mkp.ZERO.2.I.1788 and mkp.ZERO.2.I.1790. Cf. Heinz Mack to Dadamaino, Düsseldorf, December 27, 1962, Archivio Dadamaino, Somma Lombardo, Italy; and Otto Piene to Dadamaino, Düsseldorf, October 13, 1963, Archivio Dadamaino, Somma Lombardo, Italy.

[iv] “l’esprit de Zéro sera toujours vivant si des artistes comme vous s’engager avec cette verve!” Otto Piene to Dadamaino, Düsseldorf, October 13, 1963, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.2.I.1789.

The collaboration between the Düsseldorfers and the Milanese artist intensified until the summer of 1964. In March that year, the Klagenfurt gallery owner Heide Hildebrand got in touch to organize a joint exhibition of Dadamaino, Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, Günther Uecker, and Nanda Vigo. After Hildebrand had initially announced that the invitation cards would be designed by Dadamaino and Vigo, at the end of August she announced that Dadamaino would not be taking part in the exhibition after all.[i]

Just a few weeks earlier, in June 1964, Vigo and Dadamaino had participated in the group exhibition at the New Vision Centre Gallery and were involved in setting up the program of the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts) in London.[ii] “If the NVC-gallery will write you, please, give an answer in a positive sense. I wrote to London that you can organize the Italian part and we hope, you will be so nice, to do so,” Mack informed Dadamaino and Nanda Vigo on April 2.[iii]

On September 1, the exhibition Vigo, Mack, Piene, Uecker opened at Heide Hildebrand’s gallery at Wulfengasse 14 in Klagenfurt, and at the same time Mack and Piene lost contact with Dadamaino.

[i] Heide Hildebrand, Galerie Wulfengasse, to Heinz Mack, Klagenfurt, March 5, 1964, archive of the ZERO Foundation, estate of Heinz Mack, inv. nos. mkp.ZERO.1.I.442, mkp.ZERO.1.I.443, mkp.ZERO.1.I.450, and mkp.ZERO.1.I.451.

[ii] Mack to Kenneth Coutts-Smith, Düsseldorf, March 30, 1964, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Heinz Mack, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.1.I.865. Although Mack does not mention the Italian artists (“there are some German, French and the Dutch artists, who belong to us”), he does list Dadamaino on the back, along with the respective contact persons Goepfert, Soto, and Peeters.

[iii] Heinz Mack to Dadamaino and Nanda Vigo, s.l., April 2, 1964, Archivio Dadamaino, Somma Lombardo.

Dadamaino sent Heinz Mack a short, final telegram on October 31, 1964: “Congratulations.”[i] What was she congratulating him for? Perhaps on the opening of the ZERO [Group ZERO] exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, in which many ZERO artist friends participated, such as Enrico Castellani (1930–2017), Piero Dorazio (1927–2005), Lucio Fontana, Hermann Goepfert, Yves Klein, Piero Manzoni, Almir Mavignier, Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, Günther Uecker, Nanda Vigo, and Yayoi Kusama—but not Dadamaino.

[i] “Congratulazionissime.” Dadamaino to Heinz Mack, telegram, October 31, 1964, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Heinz Mack, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.1.I.155.

In the meantime, judging by the letters in the ZERO archive, Nanda Vigo had taken over the role of the “ZERO organization in Milan.”[i] Mack, Piene, and Uecker had got to know the artist and architect at the end of 1959 through Piero Manzoni, who had forbidden his partner Nanda to work as an artist. “Piero said to me: ‘We’re not the Curie family. I’m the artist, you stay at home. Naturally, I refused, and he refused to marry me. He was at once noble, bourgeois, and revolutionary. We went everywhere together, and I accompanied him to all his exhibitions.”[ii] Thus, at the very beginning of their relationship, the self-confident Vigo appeared as a discussant and ally for the cause of the new avant-garde, but not as an independent artist. This she achieved with the Casa Pellegrini, the so-called ZERO house, which the architect had designed in Milan entirely in white, with many mirrors and shiny surfaces—a home environment dedicated to bright, reflective light. Her client, Nanda Vigo told Heinz Mack in 1963, had seen one of Mack’s works in Fontana’s studio and thus she was requesting him to participate. Fontana and Castellani had already contributed works, Vigo added.[iii] It is not clear from the documents whether Mack acceded to her request.

[i] Barbara Könches, “Make Your Glass Jump! Nanda Vigo and ZERO,” in Nanda Vigo: Alfabeto Cosmogonico, eds. Alberto Fiz, Associazione Culturale Archivio Nanda Vigo, exh. cat. Museo Comunale d’Arte Moderna (Ascona, 2023), pp. 62–69. See also “O-Ton: Interview mit Allegra Ravizza,” ZERO-Heft, no. 14 (2023), pp. 4–17.

[ii] “Piero me dit: ‘nous ne sommes pas la famille Curie. L’artiste, c’est moi, toi, tu restes à la maison.’ Évidemment je refusai et lui, il refusa de m’épouser. Il était à la fois noble, bourgeois et révolutionnaire. Nous allions partout ensemble, je l’accompagnais à toutes ses expositions.” Nanda Vigo, in Paola Nicita, “Nanda Vigo: Le rôle d’une artiste de la Mitteleuropa,” unpublished manuscript in the ZERO foundation archive, Düsseldorf. Paola Nicita is quoting from her conversation with Nanda Vigo in Milan in February 2014.

[iii] Letter from Nanda Vigo to Heinz Mack, Milan, October 6, 1963, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Heinz Mack, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.1.I.825.

As already mentioned, in the summer Mack, Piene, and Uecker invited Vigo and Dadamaino to take part in the exhibition at the New Vision Centre Gallery in London.[i] In the end, twenty-three ZERO artists and two female artists exhibited their work there. The Sunday Telegraph of June 28, 1964, highlighted the newness of ZERO art: “In spite of the talk of ‘Dynamo,’ the achievement of the Group Zero (et al.) is finally one of rare calm and serenity.”[ii] A calm movement, a continuous flow, was the result when the light hit one of Mack’s Light Stelae, or when it cast its shadows into the room along Uecker’s rotating nails. Vigo’s Cronotopi also lived from the contrast between their static calm and the light vibrations they created. The light partly fell from the outside into the narrow, elegant metal cubes, and Vigo partly integrated electric light, which shone dully through the shimmering panes, or else clearly and powerfully through the plain glass.

[i] Letter from Nanda Vigo to Heinz Mack, Milan, n.d., archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Heinz Mack, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.1.I.815.

[ii] Sunday Telegraph, June 28, 1964, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Heinz Mack, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.1.II.41.

The Milanese artist was a frequent guest in Düsseldorf, which she used as a base to visit friends like Jan Schoonhoven (1914–1994) in the Netherlands and Jef Verheyen (1932–1994) in Belgium, stopping off on her way back to visit Megert in Bern. Like Dadamaino, she took on the role of facilitator, establishing contact with important people from the art world,[i] as well as authors[ii] and the press, including the well-known architecture magazine domus.[iii] She also curated and organized the major exhibition ZERO avantgarde 1965, which opened in Lucio Fontana’s studio on March 27, 1965, and which was subsequently shown in galleries in Venice, Turin, Rome, and Brescia.

A silent understanding of give and take persisted between Nanda Vigo and the Düsseldorfers, until Vigo felt that an imbalance had arisen:

[i] “Also I am meeting the editor Schweiviller, and I find him well intended to publish a Zero book.” Letter from Nanda Vigo to Otto Piene, March 2, 1965, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.2.I.2392;

[ii] “Morucchio write us a good article for Aujourd’hui.” Nanda Vigo to Heinz Mack, January 22, 1965, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Heinz Mack, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.1.I.819.

[iii] Nanda Vigo to Otto Piene, February 2, 1966, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.2.I.2166;Nanda Vigo to Heinz Mack, n.d., archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Heinz Mack, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.1.I.813.English in the letter from Vigo.

It was quite late—the beginning of 1965—when the correspondence between Vigo and Piene intensified, Piene gradually replacing Mack as the recipient of her artistic and curatorial ideas.

On January 31, 1967—ZERO having ended with the exhibition ZERO in Bonn, in the then West German capital—Nanda Vigo sent a detailed letter to Piene, from which it is clear that there were tensions between her and Mack.[i] Piene replied on February 15, 1967, with a twelve-page handwritten letter:

[i] Nanda Vigo to Otto Piene, January 31, 1967, archive of the ZERO foundation, estate of Otto Piene, inv. no. mkp.ZERO.2.I.2611.

He gently brings it home to Nanda Vigo that ZERO is over—for her, too:

The many committed letters in the ZERO foundation archive bear eloquent testimony to the fact that the Düsseldorf ZERO core group did indeed invite female artists to the exhibitions, but the small number also demonstrates how modest their share in the artistic community was. At the same time, the correspondence with Dadamaino and Nanda Vigo, in particular, shows us how intensively these two artists contributed to supporting, establishing, and consolidating ZERO in Milan.

Yayoi Kusama, the artist who was the most frequent female participant in ZERO exhibitions, never curated an exhibition herself and did not correspond with the Düsseldorf artists. Her work is undoubtedly unique and stylistically influential, but her emphasis on the physical and on addressing the psychological means that she deviates considerably from the artistic basis of the Dutch, Belgian, or Italian ZERO circles.

As a member of Gruppo T from Milan, Grazia Varisco was represented in many exhibitions with her works, which chimed very well with the ZERO spectrum due to her interest in kinetics and cognitive science, but she did not want to be specifically singled out in this context because of the fact of her being a woman.[i] This point of view can be accepted and regretted at the same time because, for her, as for all the female artists mentioned here, the following applies: her work is of a high quality, regardless of gender. This is the prerequisite for creating outstanding art.

Last but not least, it should be remembered that the success of ZERO art was also made possible by courageous female gallery owners such as Iris Clert, and female art critics such as Hannelore Schubert and Anna Klapheck. In short: there are more stories waiting to be told.

[i] Conversation with the author, Milan, January 2023.

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