Carol Vogel tallies up all the exhibitions trying to ride the coattails of the Guggenheim show opening next month. In the process, she outlines the interplay between auction house, gallery and museum to raise the profile of artists and their movements over time:
In recent years, works by Zero artists have been cropping up in art fairs and galleries, as well as at auction. A 2010 sale held by Sotheby’s in London brought high prices for Zero material from the German collectors Gerhard and Anna Lenz and helped fuel the movement’s popularity.
Now two Manhattan shows — one on the Upper East Side, the other in the Bowery — will be all about Zero. Opening on Oct. 13 at Moeller Fine Art on East 64th Street, “ZERO in Vibration — Vibration in ZERO” was organized in collaboration with the Zero Foundation in Düsseldorf and the Neuberger Museum. Highlights include works by Mr. Mack, Mr. Uecker and Piero Dorazio.
“Collectors are always hungering for something new,” said Achim Moeller, the gallery’s founder. “It’s only been in recent years that people here are becoming familiar with these artists.” Mr. Moeller’s own knowledge of the Zero Group is deep: He represents the estate of Howard Wise, the dealer who died in 1989 and ran what was perhaps the first New York gallery to display work by Zero artists.
Angela Westwater, a partner in Sperone Westwater, the gallery on the Bowery, has been showing Zero artists for years and presented an all-Zero show in 2009. On Oct. 10, that gallery will present “Heinz Mack: From Zero to Today, 1955-2014.” “For years these artists have been underappreciated and undervalued,” Ms. Westwater said. “But the market and collectors’ interests have expanded considerably.”
New and Old Media Artworks at Museum of Modern Art (NYTimes.com)
