(born Bad Laasphe in 1928) “Rain Forest”, on reverse titled, signed, dated Piene 76, oil on canvas, 110 x 110 cm, framed under glass, (PS)

Provenance:
Galerie Schoeller, Düsseldorf
Private Collection, Rhineland
In 1958 Otto Piene, who will be 85 this year, wrote in the second edition of the magazine Zero, of which he was a co-founder, that “Light is the first condition for all visibility. (…..) Light is the essential element for life, of the person and of the picture.” This need for, and fascination with, light stemmed from his dark experiences in the war. Piene has experimented with fire in his work since 1959 and, as “working light”, it continues to be an important element of his art. Piene burns away the fixative, drying agent, varnish and pigments which have accumulated on the canvas during the process of painting, and then seconds later he extinguishes the flame - fire is the decisive creative element. “For Piene there is nothing destructive in this process of burning, indeed it is quite the opposite; for him, this is a process which can create something new.” (Weibel/Beitin/Ziegler, p. 33) He compares it to the process of nature and its visible result: blossoms, cell sections, fruit and meat, encouraging him to discover flora and fauna in his fire-pictures. (Wissmann, p. 11) The luminous orange and green in Rain Forest appear to emerge from the darkness of the blackened canvas, and to Piene this suggests associations with the glow of blossoms and exuberant greenery in the dark rain forest.
Weibel, Beitin, Ziegler (Eds.), exhibition catalogue, Otto Piene, Energiefelder, Nuremberg 2013 Wissmann, Jürgen, Otto Piene, Recklinghausen 1976