Background
Heinz Mack was born on March 8, 1931 in a small German village, Lollar.
He attended the Academy of Arts Düsseldorf during the 1950s.
In 1956 he also earned a degree in philosophy at the University of Cologne.
Heinz Mack was born on March 8, 1931 in a small German village, Lollar.
Heinz attended the Academy of Arts Düsseldorf during the 1950s. In 1956 he also earned a degree in philosophy at the University of Cologne.
Together with Otto Piene he founded the group ZERO in 1957 in Düsseldorf. Besides his participation at Documenta II (1959) and Documenta III (1964), he also represented The Federal Republic of Germany at the XXXVth Venice Biennale in 1970. In the same year he was invited to Osaka (Japan) as a visiting professor. The central theme of Heinz Mack’s art is light. Sculptures and pictures are the media of his multifaceted oeuvre.
The exceptionally diverse complete works include sculptures made of different materials: light-stelae, light-rotors, light-reliefs and light-cubes. His oeuvre also involves paintings, drawings, India ink, pastels, graphics, photography and bibliophilic works. Another important aspect of Mack’s work is the design of public spaces, church interiors, stage settings and mosaics. Heinz Mack lives and works in Mönchengladbach and Ibiza.
Blaue Pagode
1993Box of light spirals
1966Farb-Relief
1957Folium Argentum
1968Gitter-Relief
1973Gitter-Rotor
1967Indian Summer, Chromatische Konstellation
2003Kleine Wüste
1964Licht-Relief
1958Light Dynamo
1963Relief mit Spiegelquadraten
1966Schwarzes Lichtrelief (Black Relief)
1959Untitled
1960Untitled
1966Untitled
1967Veil of Light
1964
Quotations:
“In my body of work there is no chronological development. Early work, mid-career, late work; this linear thinking is a completely foreign concept to me. I subconsciously revisit certain things I’ve done before that I can develop further. This circular thinking gives the work a certain cohesion.”
“When I get to the studio, I completely forget how old I am.”
“We’re from a post-war generation that experienced the war. When the war ended there was a vacuum, a material and intellectual vacuum. We were completely isolated from the world and had to find out very carefully what would happen to art after 1945.”
He became a full member of the Berlin Academy of Arts, to which he belonged until 1992.