An active member of the radical Dutch NUL group (1960-65), Henk Peeters used humble materials and processes to produce a body of work fueled by his desire to make art that everyone could understand and to smash the divide between art and life. He also organized the international ZERO exhibitions at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum (1962 and 1965) and wrote defining theoretical texts. Affiliated with the wider European ZERO movement, and with affinities to the French Nouveau Réalisme group, the NUL artists sought to increase viewers’ awareness of their environment. Peeters did this by working with natural elements, tactile industrial materials, and found objects. In his “pyrographies,” he burned holes into sheets of white plastic, their edges stained with smoke. He even became a work of art, allowing Piero Manzoni to sign his arm, effectively transforming him into a “Living Sculpture.”
An active member of the radical Dutch NUL group (1960-65), Henk Peeters used humble materials and processes to produce a body of work fueled by his desire to make art that everyone could understand and to smash the divide between art and life. He also organized the international ZERO exhibitions at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum (1962 and 1965) and wrote defining theoretical texts. Affiliated with the wider European ZERO movement, and with affinities to the French Nouveau Réalisme group, the NUL artists sought to increase viewers’ awareness of their environment. Peeters did this by working with natural elements, tactile industrial materials, and found objects. In his “pyrographies,” he burned holes into sheets of white plastic, their edges stained with smoke. He even became a work of art, allowing Piero Manzoni to sign his arm, effectively transforming him into a “Living Sculpture.”