Hal Busse and the ZERO-group
Mack, Piene, Uecker

For the gallery's first presentation at 'Independent 20th Century', the gallery focuses on the early work of artist Hal Busse (1926-2018) in the context of the ZERO movement.

Hal Busse (actually Hannelore Bendixen-Busse) is one of the few female artists to belong to the artistic avant-garde of post-war German modernism. In the 1950s, she thus moved in those artistic circles that sought to liberate post-war art from its questionable heritage and to make a new start in abstraction and non-objectivity. She exhibited with the artists of the ZERO-group around Otto Piene and Heinz Mack, but was also represented in exhibitions of the artist associations Junger Westen and Gruppe 53.

With ZERO, whose founding event, the legendary 7th evening exhibition, she took part in at Otto Piene's invitation, Busse's work is linked above all in the ever increasing reduction of forms in favour of structure and colour. At the same time, she has always retained some painterly quality in her art that sets her apart from her male contemporaries.

The art-historical consideration of Hal Busse's long-forgotten work that has begun in recent years is one of the most exciting rediscoveries of recent decades. Alongside works by Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, Günther Uecker, Yves Klein and Walter Leblanc, it becomes clear how powerful and truly original Hal Busse's position within post-war German modernism is.

To accompany the presentation at the fair, Beck & Eggeling is publishing a book on Hal Bussewi...

For the gallery's first presentation at 'Independent 20th Century', the gallery focuses on the early work of artist Hal Busse (1926-2018) in the context of the ZERO movement.

Hal Busse (actually Hannelore Bendixen-Busse) is one of the few female artists to belong to the artistic avant-garde of post-war German modernism. In the 1950s, she thus moved in those artistic circles that sought to liberate post-war art from its questionable heritage and to make a new start in abstraction and non-objectivity. She exhibited with the artists of the ZERO-group around Otto Piene and Heinz Mack, but was also represented in exhibitions of the artist associations Junger Westen and Gruppe 53.

With ZERO, whose founding event, the legendary 7th evening exhibition, she took part in at Otto Piene's invitation, Busse's work is linked above all in the ever increasing reduction of forms in favour of structure and colour. At the same time, she has always retained some painterly quality in her art that sets her apart from her male contemporaries.

The art-historical consideration of Hal Busse's long-forgotten work that has begun in recent years is one of the most exciting rediscoveries of recent decades. Alongside works by Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, Günther Uecker, Yves Klein and Walter Leblanc, it becomes clear how powerful and truly original Hal Busse's position within post-war German modernism is.

To accompany the presentation at the fair, Beck & Eggeling is publishing a book on Hal Busse with texts by Dr Barbara Könches and Claudia Kudinova.

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