47:, Galerie 201 organized the ‘Internationale tentoonstelling van NIETS’ ('International Exhibition of NOTHING’). The 'Manifest tegen niets' ('Manifesto against Nothing') and 'Einde' ('Ending'), a pamphlet published at the same time, were among the first activities of the Nul group. ‘We need art like we need a hole in the head,’ the pamphlet 'Einde' states; ‘From now on the undersigned pledge to work to disband art circles and close down exhibition facilities, which can then finally be put to worthier use.’ The 'Einde' pamphlet imagines a new beginning, as Armando and Henk Peeters had already proclaimed in texts written several years earlier for the Dutch Informals.
302:, the choice of synthetic products and plastic cut both ways. The material was free of visual signature, but it was also emphatically unpainterly and an expression of resistance against the academic establishment and the rules of the game. To undermine the retinal aspect of art, the precious and status-based object as a fetish for the eye, Peeters envisaged one more method: to bypass ‘seeing’ altogether and appeal to the sense of touch. Peeters's ‘tactilist’ works of cotton wool, feathers, hair pieces, nylon thread or fake fur are ‘objects of greater interest to senses other than the eye.’
84:). These works marked a transitional phase from the informal painting to Nul work; they are iconoclastic intermediate steps Peeters and Armando were taking on their new path. Henderikse also turned his back on painting in 1959, with assemblages of everyday objects, and toward 1960 Schoonhoven strived, in frozen, increasingly whiter reliefs, ‘by avoiding intentional form . . . for a much greater organic reality of the artificial in and of itself.’ These are works that, according to Schoonhoven, offer the possibility ‘to arrive at objectively neutral expression of the generally applicable.’
165:
276:
173:
Nul artists aimed to shed the stereotyped image of the bohemian in a painting smock and had a fresh attitude toward the consumer society, quite at odds with the artistic scene of the early 1960s. Nul was a search for new relationships between art and reality, with at its base the rejection of uniqueness, authenticity and decorative attractiveness in the traditional sense of the word. The group reduced the multi-coloured to the
210:
navigated between a cheerful orientation toward the world of the everyday and the cool sobriety of the serial monochrome. Whereas the German Zero artists were still ‘painting’ with the elements, with the effects of fire, light, shadow, movement and reflection, the Nul artist preferred to let reality speak for itself by isolating it, usually in raw form. Among the
Dutchmen, only
465:, Christian Megert, Henk Peeters and Jan Schoonhoven. The manifesto and the pamphlet were sent in the form of an invitation to the 'Internationale tentoonstelling van NIETS' in the Amsterdam Galerie 207, April 1961. The 'Manifest tegen niets' was based on a publication of the same name by Carl Laszlo (Basel, 1960), also publisher of the influential Swiss magazine
249:’s work monochrome played a far more modest role, although in 1959 he was already painting his earliest assemblages black. Mass and multiplication were Henderikse’s major methods of reducing the personal element: ‘I hate little stories but I really love a lot of stuff, of all those things people love, everyday things especially. It’s always been that way.’
72:. Fontana's escape ‘from the prison of the flat surface’ by piercing or slicing up the canvas and Burri's material, burnt plastic, made a big impression on him. Burri and Fontana played a vital role in the transition from paint on canvas or panel to the use of industrial materials and the abandonment of the flat surface. Barely a year later, in 1959,
491:, ex. cat. (Arnhem: self-publication, 1959), no page numbers. Peeters text was published at the occasion of the exhibition 'Nederlandse Informele Groep' at the Nijmegen Besiendershuys, July 4–20, 1959. For how Peeters’ early artist’s texts were received, see also: Jonneke Jobse, 'Houdt links!,' in: Jonneke Jobse and Marga van Mechelen (eds.),
20:
112:, edited by Armando, Henk Peeters and Herman de Vries, came out in November 1961. With contributions by artists who a year later would take part in the first Nul exhibition at the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum, the journal presented a good overview of the main themes of the international ZERO movement, which emerged around the journal
215:
spectator of a self-directed performance.’ In terms of form, Peeters's tactile cotton balls, whether on a canvas or on a wall as a three-dimensional installation, are balanced on the cusp between Nul and the German Zero. 'It is not our job to educate, any more than it is our job to convey messages,’ said
706:
played a guiding role in the initiation and organization of the exhibition. Although Herman de Vries had not co-signed manifestoes and pamphlets drawn up by
Armando and Henk Peeters, nor taken part in the exhibitions under the flag of the Nederlandse Informele Groep, prior to the formation of the Nul
306:
is the only one who never ‘annexed’ objects or ready-made materials. Schoonhoven saw his reliefs as ‘spiritual reality’, as a representation of forms out of reality and therefore, in a roundabout way, fitting within the Nul idiom. One exception to the rule was his wall of folded and stacked boxes in
257:
Archetypal Nul work seems constructed out of a multiplication of uniform and isolated forms, objects or phenomena: as repetitions of steel bolts, of matchboxes, of identical white surfaces grids of burn holes and cotton balls. In 1965 Schoonhoven made bold pronouncements on seriality, on the repeated
55:
The Dutch
Informal Group, preceding the formation of the Nul group, was founded in 1958. Until early 1961 its members showed works in oils or pigments mixed with plaster and sand, usually on panels, linen or jute. The group replaced the expression of emotions in paint with an attempt at an absence of
320:
The 0-INSTITUTE, founded in 2005, has the task of researching, preserving and presenting the works and documents of artists associated with the international post-war ZERO movement and active in to evaluate the ideas of the movement and present them in a contemporary context. The ZERO foundation was
172:
Nul's pragmatism, its sober approach to the world, to the product of art, to being an artist and to reality, is expressed in the formal characteristics of its works, but also in its everyday practice, in the way works were created and exhibited, the way artists operated and presented themselves. The
283:
Even machine-made objects and materials proved ideal for taking the personality aspect out of the work. The choice was not linked to any deeper notion; the material is most of all ‘itself’ in all its ordinary beauty. This acceptance of reality implied that the contribution of the artist, aside from
266:
spoke of ‘intensifying one of the elements out of which a painting used to be constructed’, because ‘. . . combining fragments is an obsolete method.’ Seriality was their common way of expressing their refusal to compose, although each found his own material and method: Armando's seriality is more
244:
saw a straight line from his monochrome oil paintings of the late 1950s to his assemblages of bolts and barbed wire during the Nul period. In both instances, to
Armando, monochrome was a farewell to the psychology of the maker; the monochrome surface is frozen and anonymous – as far as it goes. In
224:
in ‘Paths to
Paradise’ in 1961. With their clear-eyed view of reality, the members of Nul were not dreaming of the world, neither a better nor a worse, and certainly not of ‘paths to paradise’. During the Nul period, radicalism and a sincerely felt admiration for what was new and contemporary went
214:
worked with the elements water and fire – although
Peeters saw his ‘pyrographs’, soot and scorch marks on various surfaces, as a typically Nul solution to the elimination of any excessively personal element: to work with the fickleness of a flame is ‘. . . to let go of the work and to become the
209:
produced a work in his material, card sliver, a spun synthetic fibre. ‘The process of creation is . . . completely unimportant and uninteresting; a machine can do it,’ Peeters said. ‘The personal element lies in the idea and no longer in the manufacture.’ The identity of the Dutch Nul group
321:
established in 2008 - upon an initiative by the Dutch curator
Mattijs Visser-, a collaboration between the Düsseldorf ZERO artists with the Museum Kunstpalast. The ZERO foundation has the task of researching, preserving and presenting the works and documents of the German Zero group.
311:
in The Hague in 1964. If we take a signatureless use of industrially produced material as a requisite, this is
Schoonhoven's only ‘pure’ Nul work – not to mention directly taken from reality, since Schoonhoven had spotted the stacked boxes in the attic of the Historic paint factory.
219:
in 1960. This might as easily have been a statement by Henk
Peeters, by Jan Henderikse and even by the German Zero group. And yet the sober-minded outlook of the Dutchmen distinguished itself from the German Zero. ‘Yes, I dream of a better world. Should I dream of a worse?’ wrote
297:
in The Hague. According to the Nul artist, there was little you could do to improve on a piece of isolated reality in its unadulterated form. ‘Everything was beautiful’, Armando said in 1975. ‘Everything was interesting. One big eye, that’s how I felt.’ For
168:'Rood, wit, blauw', a collaborative work by Armando, Jan Schoonhoven and Henk Peeters, and an orange pennant by Jan Henderikse, 1964-1993, mixed media on panel, 92 x 41.5 cm & 39.5 x 86 x 12 cm. Photo: Courtesy The Mayor Gallery, London
288:
signed Düsseldorf's
Oberkassel Bridge in whitewash; three years later he made plans to sign a HEMA shop in Amsterdam, to turn it into the biggest ready-made assemblage ever. These are examples of radical adaptations of reality, like
124:. The movement found sympathizers in countries like Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and Venezuela. Since the late 1950s the Dutchmen had established close ties with the German Zero group led by
107:
first exhibited their new, non-painting work at the ‘Internationale Malerei 1960-61’ exhibition in Wolframs-Eschenbach, Germany. The first issue of the new group's internationally oriented ‘house organ’, the journal
596:
and published in French and German. Another three issues would follow; number two in 1963 without Armando as editor, and numbers three and four in 1963-1964, under the slightly altered title revue nul = 0, with
240:
also considered monochrome a levelling effect that could bridge contradictions across the two-dimensional plane, although his work was never as explicitly monochrome as Jan Schoonhoven's.
236:’s ‘objectively neutral expression of the generally applicable’ persisted throughout Nul, and in his work, monochrome – the reduction of all colour to white – was the chosen instrument.
189:, in use and effect. Even its conceptual aspect, the splitting of thought and action, of conception, production as well as the possibility of repeat production was, in the footsteps of
707:
Group in 1961, his work was nonetheless an important component of the Dutch presentation in the 1962-exhibition Nul, in a gallery together with Henderikse, Peeters and Schoonhoven.
551:
Jan Schoonhoven, untitled text, 1960. Published at the occasion of the first exhibition of the Dutch Informal Group outside the Netherlands, at Galerie Gunar, Düsseldorf. In:
262:, Nul's method was driven by its intentions, by the consistent acceptance of isolated reality without accentuating any one thing, with no high points or low points.
813:
258:
pattern of identical elements. Organization ‘. . . comes out of the need to avoid partiality’ and had nothing to do with geometric structure. To
745:, part II, no page numbers. This catalogue accompanied the second large scale ZERO exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, spring 1965.
337:
and its artists. This exhibition was followed by the traveling exhibitions 'ZERO. Die Internationale Kunstbewegung der 50er und 60er Jahre' (
349:. Over the last years, several European galleries hosted exhibitions on the Dutch Nul-artists. Most notably are however London based The
487:
Armando had published his texts 'Credo 1' and 'Credo 2' in 1958 and 1959, respectively. Henk Peeters, 'Vuil aan de lucht', published in
333:
organized the exhibition 'ZERO: Countdown to Tomorrow, 1950s-60s' (October 2014-January 2015), paying tribute to the international
525:
Antoon Melissen, 'Nul = 0. The Dutch avant-garde of the 1960s in a European Context', in: Colin Huizing and Tijs Visser, eds.,
279:
Jan Henderikse, 'Vater und Sohn', 1959, mixed media in wooden crate, 39 x 50 x 16 cm. Photo: Courtesy The Mayor Gallery, London
504:
Also Dutch artists Fred Sieger (1902-1999) and Rik Jager (1933) participated in exhibitions of the Dutch Informal Group.
330:
164:
56:'personal signature', resulting in colourless and monochrome works virtually devoid of form or composition. In 1958
338:
43:(1914-1994), manifested itself in form and name in 1961. On 1 April 1961, a stone's throw from the Amsterdam
508:(1921-2012) only took part in the very first exhibition, at the refectory of the Delft University, in 1958.
308:
294:
23:
The Dutch Nul Group in 1961. From left to right: Jan Henderikse, Jan Schoonhoven, Armando, and Henk Peeters
406:
655:
671:
635:
509:
450:
267:
frozen than Henderikse's, harder than that of Peeters and more direct in material than Schoonhoven's.
687:
667:
516:, exhibit. cat. (The Hague: Gemeentemuseum/Antwerp, Koninklijk Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, 1983), 16.
458:
382:
303:
259:
233:
104:
40:
643:
438:
414:
374:
285:
246:
202:
96:
647:
386:
193:, linked to a different interpretation of ideas like craftsmanship and expertise. At the Amsterdam
695:
357:
in Amsterdam, especially for their longstanding interest in ZERO, Nul and minimal tendencies. The
754:
Germano Celant, Piero Manzoni, ex. cat., (Milan: Charta/London: Serpentine Gallery, 1998), 271.
205:
left the setting up of their installations to museum staff, and in 1965, at Peeters's request,
691:
683:
619:
145:
133:
461:; the pamphlet 'Einde' by Armando, Bazon Brock, Jan Henderikse, Arthur Køpcke, Silvano Lora,
611:
585:
442:
434:
394:
390:
370:
362:
342:
290:
263:
241:
198:
194:
92:
77:
44:
32:
275:
699:
598:
593:
346:
69:
610:'Nul', March 9–26, 1962, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Participating artists were Armando,
345:
Amsterdam, July–November 2015), both organized in conjunction with the Düsseldorf based
190:
807:
663:
631:
627:
462:
446:
402:
358:
350:
216:
141:
65:
61:
738:
703:
675:
651:
589:
454:
378:
366:
299:
237:
211:
206:
153:
100:
73:
57:
36:
639:
505:
369:(2011), and a group show of the four Nul-members under the title 'Nul=0' (2007,
768:
764:
679:
659:
410:
334:
221:
149:
129:
125:
121:
117:
623:
398:
615:
225:
hand in hand; nimble provocation is what Nul seemed to have a patent on.
564:
Bram Bogart and Kees van Bohemen also took part in this exhibition. See
512:(1928-1985) left the group in February 1961. See also: Franck Gribling,
82:
Espace Criminal (10 zwarte spijkers op zwart; 10 Black Nails on Black
578:
nul = 0. tijdschrift voor de nieuwe konseptie in de beeldende kunst,
19:
274:
163:
137:
18:
720:
journal were published in April 1958, October 1958 and July 1961.
580:
series 1, no. 1 (November 1961). The first issue of the magazine
795:
Alles was mooi. Een kleine geschiedenis van de Nul-beweging
361:
hosted several Nul-related exhibitions, including works by
284:
making the choice, was often reduced to a minimum. In 1960
341:, March–June 2015) and 'ZERO. Let us Explore the Stars' (
797:, (Amsterdam: Meulenhoff/The Hague: Landshoff, 1989), 7.
763:
Otto Piene, 'Paths to Paradise (Wege zum Paradies), in:
354:
76:
burned two rows of holes in a painting, 1959-03, and
493:Echt Peeters. Henk Peeters, realist, avant-gardist
136:joined the group in 1961) and the Japanese group
775:, Cambridge (MA)/London: MIT Press, 1973), 146.
527:The Dutch Nul Group in an International Context
514:Informele Kunst in Belgie en Nederland 1955-'60
116:, published in 1958 and 1961 by German artists
542:, (Rotterdam: nai010 Publishers, 2015), 66-68.
529:, (Rotterdam: nai010 Publishers, 2010), 13-14.
8:
393:was also included in the 2010 show 'zero+' (
187:directness of everyday materials and objects
540:Armando. Between Knowing and Understanding
495:(Wezep: Uitgeverij de Kunst, 2011), 33-41.
741:, untitled contribution to the catalogue
433:'The Manifest tegen niets' was signed by
293:’s 1964 installation of oil drums at the
793:Armando, quoted in: Janneke Wesseling,
426:
385:; this exhibition in conjunction with
51:Roots of Nul: The Dutch Informal Group
35:(b. 1929), Jan Henderikse (b. 1937),
7:
743:Nul negentienhonderd vijf en zestig
784:Antoon Melissen, (see note 5), 15.
729:Antoon Melissen, (see note 5), 16.
555:, brochure, 1960, no page numbers.
80:set nails in the ends of a panel,
14:
325:Recent attention for Nul and ZERO
478:'Einde', pamphlet, 1 April 1961'
814:Art schools in the Netherlands
148:, the French Nouveau Réaliste
1:
445:, Carl Laszlo, Silvano Lora,
271:The Everyday and the Ordinary
331:Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
553:Nederlandse Informele Groep
489:Nederlandse Informele Groep
68:for the first time, at the
830:
339:Museum Martin-Gropius-Bau
88:The International Context
716:The three issues of the
309:Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
295:Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
197:in 1962, for instance,
538:Antoon Melissen, ed.,
407:Gerhard von Graevenitz
329:In 2014 and 2015, the
280:
169:
24:
278:
167:
31:, which consisted of
22:
365:(2007, 2010, 2012),
601:as the sole editor.
160:The Identity of Nul
39:(b. 1925-2013) and
656:Francesco Lo Savio
281:
170:
140:, as well as with
25:
620:Enrico Castellani
146:Enrico Castellani
821:
798:
791:
785:
782:
776:
761:
755:
752:
746:
736:
730:
727:
721:
714:
708:
672:Christian Megert
636:Hermann Goepfert
612:Bernard Aubertin
608:
602:
575:
569:
562:
556:
549:
543:
536:
530:
523:
517:
510:Kees van Bohemen
502:
496:
485:
479:
476:
470:
451:Christian Megert
431:
343:Stedelijk Museum
195:Stedelijk Museum
60:saw the work of
45:Stedelijk Museum
829:
828:
824:
823:
822:
820:
819:
818:
804:
803:
802:
801:
792:
788:
783:
779:
762:
758:
753:
749:
737:
733:
728:
724:
715:
711:
700:Herman de Vries
688:Jan Schoonhoven
668:Almir Mavignier
609:
605:
599:Herman de Vries
594:Herman de Vries
576:
572:
563:
559:
550:
546:
537:
533:
524:
520:
503:
499:
486:
482:
477:
473:
459:Jan Schoonhoven
437:, Bazon Brock,
432:
428:
423:
383:Jan Schoonhoven
347:ZERO foundation
327:
318:
304:Jan Schoonhoven
273:
260:Jan Schoonhoven
255:
234:Jan Schoonhoven
231:
162:
105:Jan Schoonhoven
90:
70:Venice Biennale
53:
41:Jan Schoonhoven
29:Dutch Nul Group
17:
12:
11:
5:
827:
825:
817:
816:
806:
805:
800:
799:
786:
777:
756:
747:
731:
722:
709:
692:Günther Uecker
644:Jan Henderikse
603:
584:was edited by
570:
568:, 8 March 1961
557:
544:
531:
518:
497:
480:
471:
439:Jan Henderikse
425:
424:
422:
419:
415:Luis Tomasello
389:, Amsterdam).
375:Jan Henderikse
326:
323:
317:
314:
286:Jan Henderikse
272:
269:
254:
251:
247:Jan Henderikse
230:
229:The Monochrome
227:
203:Jan Henderikse
191:Marcel Duchamp
177:and opted for
161:
158:
134:Günther Uecker
97:Jan Henderikse
89:
86:
52:
49:
15:
13:
10:
9:
6:
4:
3:
2:
826:
815:
812:
811:
809:
796:
790:
787:
781:
778:
774:
770:
766:
760:
757:
751:
748:
744:
740:
735:
732:
726:
723:
719:
713:
710:
705:
701:
697:
693:
689:
685:
681:
677:
673:
669:
665:
664:Piero Manzoni
661:
657:
653:
649:
648:Oskar Holweck
645:
641:
637:
633:
632:Lucio Fontana
629:
628:Piero Dorazio
625:
621:
617:
613:
607:
604:
600:
595:
591:
587:
583:
579:
574:
571:
567:
566:Het Vaderland
561:
558:
554:
548:
545:
541:
535:
532:
528:
522:
519:
515:
511:
507:
501:
498:
494:
490:
484:
481:
475:
472:
468:
464:
463:Piero Manzoni
460:
456:
452:
448:
447:Piero Manzoni
444:
443:Arthur Køpcke
440:
436:
430:
427:
420:
418:
416:
412:
408:
404:
403:Lucio Fontana
400:
396:
392:
388:
387:Borzo Gallery
384:
380:
376:
372:
368:
364:
360:
359:Mayor Gallery
356:
355:Borzo Gallery
352:
351:Mayor Gallery
348:
344:
340:
336:
335:ZERO movement
332:
324:
322:
315:
313:
310:
305:
301:
296:
292:
287:
277:
270:
268:
265:
261:
252:
250:
248:
243:
239:
235:
228:
226:
223:
218:
217:Piero Manzoni
213:
208:
204:
200:
196:
192:
188:
184:
180:
176:
166:
159:
157:
155:
151:
147:
143:
142:Piero Manzoni
139:
135:
131:
127:
123:
119:
115:
111:
110:Revue nul = 0
106:
102:
98:
94:
87:
85:
83:
79:
75:
71:
67:
66:Alberto Burri
63:
62:Lucio Fontana
59:
50:
48:
46:
42:
38:
34:
30:
21:
794:
789:
780:
772:
759:
750:
742:
739:Henk Peeters
734:
725:
717:
712:
704:Henk Peeters
696:Jef Verheyen
676:Henk Peeters
652:Yayoi Kusama
606:
590:Henk Peeters
581:
577:
573:
565:
560:
552:
547:
539:
534:
526:
521:
513:
500:
492:
488:
483:
474:
466:
455:Henk Peeters
429:
379:Henk Peeters
367:Henk Peeters
328:
319:
300:Henk Peeters
282:
256:
238:Henk Peeters
232:
212:Henk Peeters
207:Yayoi Kusama
186:
182:
178:
174:
171:
154:Yayoi Kusama
152:and Japan's
113:
109:
101:Henk Peeters
91:
81:
74:Henk Peeters
58:Henk Peeters
54:
37:Henk Peeters
28:
26:
640:Hans Haacke
506:Bram Bogart
769:Otto Piene
765:Heinz Mack
680:Otto Piene
660:Heinz Mack
453:, Onorio,
421:References
411:Otto Piene
222:Otto Piene
179:repetition
175:monochrome
150:Yves Klein
130:Otto Piene
126:Heinz Mack
122:Otto Piene
118:Heinz Mack
624:Dadamaino
399:Dadamaino
183:seriality
16:Art group
808:Category
771:(eds.),
684:Uli Pohl
616:Pol Bury
467:Panderma
316:Research
253:The Grid
185:and the
586:Armando
582:nul = 0
435:Armando
395:Armando
391:Armando
371:Armando
363:Armando
291:Armando
264:Armando
242:Armando
199:Armando
93:Armando
78:Armando
33:Armando
413:, and
138:Gutai
773:ZERO
767:and
718:ZERO
698:and
592:and
457:and
381:and
353:and
307:the
201:and
144:and
128:and
114:ZERO
103:and
64:and
27:The
417:).
120:en
810::
702:.
694:,
690:,
686:,
682:,
678:,
674:,
670:,
666:,
662:,
658:,
654:,
650:,
646:,
642:,
638:,
634:,
630:,
626:,
622:,
618:,
614:,
588:,
449:,
441:,
409:,
405:,
401:,
397:,
377:,
373:,
181:,
156:.
99:,
95:,
469:.
132:(
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
