Space Age and Zero

After the Russian satellite Sputnik I had been successfully launched into space in 1957, the British tabloid Daily Express headlined: “Space Age is here!” The ensuing space enthusiasm, which culminated in 1969 with the first moon landing, left its mark in the history of film and design: Space Patrol Orion, Star Trek and 2001: A Space Odyssey mirror the fascination with space in cinema and TV.

The Finnish designer Eero Aarnio designed the spaciest seating of the time with his Ball Chair and his Bubble Chair suspended from the ceiling.

A futuristic armchair in the shape of a sphere open at the front, smooth white material on the outside, red upholstery on the inside.
Eero Aarnio, “Ball Chair”, 1963/65, Inv. No. A01987

The space age had also left its mark on the visual arts. In 1958 Heinz Mack and Otto Piene founded the artist group ZERO in Düsseldorf, which Günther Uecker joined in 1961. ZERO became known for its purist aesthetics, located in a sort of grey zone between painting and sculpture, in which light played a decisive role.

About the name ZERO Otto Piene said: “From the beginning, we understood Zero as a name for a zone of silence and new possibilities, [...] We were thinking of the countdown before the rocket launch.”

A gray, portrait-format picture with a textured, roughened surface.
Otto Piene, Raster picture 4-814, 1957, Inv. No. MK00060