Mack, Piene and Uecker. Zero Top Hat

used during the Zero Fest in Dusseldorf, 1989. Handmade oversized black cardboard cylinder (diameter 32.5 cm, height 50 cm), mounted in two parts. Boldly signed in white chalk by Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and Günther Uecker. With a dedication from Mack to a friend (Saskia).

In 1964, the Zero group participated in the Dusseldorf Carnival parade with a Zero float. Its members were dressed entirely in black, with white zeros on their outfits, faces painted white, wearing self-made outsized top hats. In 1989 the performance was repeated at the Zero Festival organized by Galerie Schoeller in Dusseldorf. These were also assembled by hand (by Piene, Schoeller and students), but considerably taller and narrower than the 1964 version. Following the festival, Heinz Mack gave one of these hats away, signed in chalk by all three artists and inscribed with greetings for the recipient. The white chalk inscription is slightly erased in places, but still clearly legible. Very good copy. Ref: Heiner Stachelhaus, Zero Dusseldorf 1993, pp 41, 42, 51.