Zero by Otto Piene and Heinz Mack (review)

82 Books which was published in a horizontal format associated with catalogues. It has been expanded to include a section on techniques applicable to the following materials: clay, stone, synthetic stone, metal construction, metal casting, plastics and wood. This gives it the practicality of a handbook. Kelly’s dedication is ‘to light’. Light for sculptors is and has been of prime importance, for it is through the use of light and shadow that their messages are expressed in 3-dimensional form. In view of his dedication, I was surprised not to find in the otherwise well-balanced ‘Bibliography for Further Reading’ a reference to work on kinetic art, for example by Thomas Wilfred [Lumia, the Art of Light, J. of Aesth. & Art Crit. 7,70 (1948)l. He enlarges on the book’s title as follows: ‘Sculpture is the creation, the essence, of its own reality, dependent on matter, form, and content. This is the sculptural idea.’ He develops this theme in eight chapters organized to deal with the sculptor himself, history, the search for form, material, method and meaning of sculpture, new technology and the changing role of the sculptor. In this edition the author re-examines a statement that he made in the Introduction of the 1970 edition, that is: ‘No longer are restrictions of any type or consequence imposed on the sculptor. He is to do as he wills. . . . Restrictions of subject matter, form or content are nonexistent . ...’(p. xiii). The author finds that this freedom has burdened the sculptor with ‘a major task in sorting out his own attitudes’ and that what he needs is a ‘greater sense of historical evolution. ...’(p. xiii). I laud Kelly’s consistent expansion of his theme on the level of ideas, citing sculptors, from the time of Rodin to the most recent conceptualists, as exponents rather than analyzing their work. The scholarship behind The Sculptrirul Idea is formidable but it is lightened by the author’s capable craftsmanship as a writer. Zero. Otto Piene and Heinz Mack. M.I.T. Press, Cambridge , Mass., 1973. 331 p ~ . , illus. $15.00. Reviewed by Charles Pulsford* ‘Zero-a word indicating a zone of silence and of pure possibilities for a new beginning as at the count-down when rockets take off-zero is the incommensurable zone in which the old state turns into the new.’ (Otto Piene in ‘The Development of the Group Zero’.) Group Zero was formed at Diisseldorf in the mid-1950’s. By the early 1960’s it had some influence on the work of artists in Western Europe. It pioneered ‘environmental’ art, contributed to the development of large scale kinetic and ‘technological’ art and took an interest in new applications of colour and light. From the beginning the Group was loosely formed, with artists involved to different degrees in its aims. This proved to be a fruitful arrangement . Among the 30 or more artists who have been involved with the Group are: Piene and Mack (editors of this book), Fontana, Tinguely, Klein, Mavignier, Zillmann, Arman, Castellani, Manzoni, Spoerri, Kage, Uecker and Salentin. The book is a collection of photographs and of texts written by the artists themselves or by others. It proclaims the importance of artistic individuality, as the illustrations demonstrate very clearly; and, indeed, individuality seems to have been promoted by their group interaction. Most of the text is clearly written and a common ground is implied by the repetition of similar but not identical statements . The texts are well translated by Howard Beckman. The format of the book has a special kind of original, imaginative layout that reflects the aims of the Group. Nevertheless, I find reasons to criticize aspects of the book and, especially, the work of those connected with the Group. Page 89 has a tear in it and page 95 is burned, but the tear is merely a tear and the burn misfires in its effect. There are no colour illustrations, which makes some of the black and white ones inadequate, even ridiculous. About the Group itself, my complaint is directed at the work of some of the artists in which I find a flaw that is to be found in much ‘environmental’ and ‘conceptual...