ZERO

ZERO, written in capitals, refers to the international movement, with artists from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Switzerland.The main idea was to create art that was purely about the work’s materials and the world in which those materials exist. 

It started in Germany with the Zero Group, led by Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, and Günther Uecker, and spread to other European countries in the 1950s, In the Netherlands, there was Nul, with artists like Armando, Jan Henderikse, Jan Schoonhoven, and Herman de Vries. In France, the Nouveaux Réalistes included artists like Yves Klein, Arman and Daniel Spoerri. The Japanese Gutai group included artists like Atsuko Tanaka. 

Also Lucio Fontana worked very closely with the Zero Group’s inner core. Fontana, a generation older than the other associated artists, is considered to have been a kind of father figure to the group.