Exhibition, 6 Nov 2022 - 12 Feb 2023

EPOCHE ZERO. Die Sammlung Lenz Schönberg zu Gast

Kunstmuseum Ahlen, Ahlen, Germany

"Zero is the beginning, Zero is silence, Zero flows, Zero is Zero" - this is how Heinz Mack and Otto Piene described an art in 1963 that was supposed to bring light and optimism back into the world after the dark years of National Socialism and the war. Their works were to be puristic, bright, floating, moving, profound and full of energy. Together with artists such as Günther Uecker, Gotthard Graubner, Yves Klein, Roman Opałka and Jean Tinguely, they believed that art can address and touch every person very directly, without telling a story or depicting a section of reality.
Sixty years later, ZERO has long since entered (art) history and is at home in all major museums. The world's most important and largest ZERO collection, however, with almost 500 works, is the private Lenz Schönberg Collection - assembled over many decades by Gerhard and Anna Lenz out of a passion for art and in friendly dialogue with the artists. The guiding idea was that ZERO should be understood as a European movement that connects artists from all over Europe with each other and with their audience.