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Heinz Mack

Heinz Mack was born in Lollar (Hesse, Germany) in 1931. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf from 1950 to 1953. At the University of Cologne, he studied philosophy until 1956, graduating in both programmes with state exams.

In 1957, Heinz Mack and Otto Piene founded the ZERO movement in Düsseldorf, which Günther Uecker joined in 1961. This art movement – to be understood as ground zero, from which new aesthetic principles and ideas were developed – drew together artists such as Yves Klein, Fontana, Manzoni, Castellani, Tinguely and Schoonhoven, who had a distinct influence on ZERO, while at the same time receiving energy and ideas from ZERO. Within a decade, ZERO became what is today considered one of the most important international avant-garde movements after World War II. In 2014, a major ZERO exhibition opened at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, which subsequently travelled to the Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and the Sakip Sabanci Museum, Istanbul, drawing a total of almost 700.000 visitors.

In 1959, Mack conceived the so-called Sahara Project, in which he expressed a strong artistic interest in exploring pure light in areas of unspoiled nature. From 1962 on, he installed his “artificial gardens” in the African desert, consisting of sand-reliefs, wings, cubes, mirrors, sails, and monumental light-stelae. This experimental practice with the force of light is shown in the highly respected and awarded film Tele-Mack (1968). In 1976, Mack realized his utopian projects in the Arctic, where he installed swimming sculptures of acrylic glass, light-flowers, prismatic pyramids, ice crystals and fire-rafts. In 2022, the monograph Mack – Sahara was published by Hirmer.

Besides his participation in documenta III (1964) and documenta VI (1977), Mack represented Germany at the XXXVth Venice Biennale in 1970. He also obtained a professorship in Osaka, Japan, and became a full member of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, to which he belonged until 1992. In 2015, the senate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf unanimously elected Mack as an honorary member.

The artist has been honoured with major awards including the Premio Marzotto (1963), the Premier Prix Arts Plastiques at the IVth Paris Biennale (1965), the Order of Merit of North Rhine-Westphalia (1992), Grand Federal Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany (2011), and the Moses Mendelssohn Medal (2017), among others.

In 2014, the sculpture ensemble The Sky Over Nine Columns was inaugurated on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice: Nine columns, each measuring eight metres, covered with more than 850.000 gold-plated tesserae. In 2015, the ensemble was shown in front of the Sakip Sabanci Museum, Istanbul, and in 2016 moved to Valencia – surrounded by the futuristic architecture of Santiago Calatrava at Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias. One year later, it was exhibited on the shore of Lake St. Moritz in the Swiss Engadin.

Light is a central theme in the non-representational art of Heinz Mack. His multifaceted oeuvre includes sculptures of various materials – also monumental ones for urban spaces, light reliefs, light cubes, light rotors, light stelae, paintings, drawings, pastels, ink drawings, graphics, photography, mosaics, ceramics, conceptual designs of public spaces and interiors, stage settings, as well as literary works.

Heinz Mack’s works of art have been shown in 400 solo and numerous group exhibitions. His works are among the holdings of some 170 public collections. A multitude of books and catalogues, as well as films, document his work.

  • Biography

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Selected artworks

  • Heinz Mack, The Desert in Me, 1963

    Heinz Mack The Desert in Me, 1963

    Sahara sand, wood
    Signed, dated "mack 63" (bottom central on front) / Signed, dated "mack 63" + Label Galerie Denise René, Paris (on reverse)
    161 x 100 x 10 cm, 63 2/5 x 39 3/8 x 4 in (in wooden case with acrylic glass front)

  • Heinz Mack, The Joy of Calvin, 1963

    Heinz Mack The Joy of Calvin, 1963

    Aluminum on wood
    160 x 100 cm, 63 x 39 3/8 in

  • Heinz Mack, Untitled, 1968

    Heinz Mack Untitled, 1968

    Synthetic resin on nettle
    Signed, dated "mack" (on reverse)
    76 x 60 cm, 29 9/10 x 23 5/8 in
    75 x 93 cm, 29 1/2 x 36 3/5 in (in acrylic glass case)

  • Heinz Mack, Untitled, 2012

    Heinz Mack Untitled, 2012

    Marble (Bianco Carrara, Italy), Lava Basalt (Eiffel, Germany)
    Signed, dated "mack 12" (sideways on sculpture)
    151 x 95 x 50 cm, 59 2/5 x 37 2/5 x 19 5/8 in
    36 x 100 x 50 cm, 14 9/5 x 39 3/8, 19 5/8 in (basalt pedestal)

  • Heinz Mack, The Garden of Eden (Chromatic Constellation), 2011

    Heinz Mack The Garden of Eden (Chromatic Constellation), 2011

    Acrylic on canvas
    Signed, dated, titled "mack 11, Der Garten Eden" (bottom right on front)/ Signed, dated "mack 11" (on reverse)
    363 x 600 cm, 142 9/10 x 236 2/5 in

  • Heinz Mack, Large Spectrum (Chromatic Constellation), 2012

    Heinz Mack Large Spectrum (Chromatic Constellation), 2012

    Acrylic on canvas
    Signed, dated "mack 12" (bottom right on front)/ Signed, dated, titled "mack 12, Großes Spektrum" (on reverse)
    208 x 308 cm, 81 8/9 x 121 1/4 in

Gallery exhibitions

Museum exhibitions

Selected press