Heinz Mack (born March 8, 1931) is a German artist. Together with Otto Piene he founded the ZERO movement in 1957. He exhibited works at documenta in 1964 and 1977 and he represented Germany at the 1970

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. He is best known for his contributions to op art,

light art Light art or The Art of Light is generally referring to a visual art form in which (physical) light is the main, if not sole medium of creation. Uses of the term differ drastically in incongruence; definitions, if existing, vary in several asp ...

and kinetic art.

Biography

Heinz Mack was born in 1931 in the small town of

Lollar Lollar is a town in the district of Gießen, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated on the river Lahn, 7 km north of Gießen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the d ...

in Germany. Between 1950 and 1956 he studied at the

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at the academy include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Magdalena Jetelová ...

. In 1957 together with Otto Piene he started a series of what were called ''Abendausstellungen'' (evening exhibitions) at their studio in Düsseldorf. This series was the initial event for the formation of the group ZERO (with Mack, Piene and Günther Uecker as its nucleus) and the international ZERO movement. Among the participants of the ZERO movement were

Yves Klein Yves Klein (; 28 April 1928 – 6 June 1962) was a French artist and an important figure in post-war European art. He was a leading member of the French artistic movement of Nouveau réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein w ...

, Lucio Fontana,

Piero Manzoni Piero Manzoni di Chiosca e Poggiolo, better known as Piero Manzoni (July 13, 1933 – February 6, 1963) was an Italian artist best known for his ironic approach to avant-garde art. Often compared to the work of Yves Klein, his own work antici ...

and

Jean Tinguely Jean Tinguely (22 May 1925 – 30 August 1991) was a Swiss sculptor best known for his kinetic art sculptural machines (known officially as Métamatics) that extended the Dada tradition into the later part of the 20th century. Tinguely's art ...

. In the early 1960s, Mack worked, with Gotthard Graubner, as an art teacher at the Lessing Gymnasium, Düsseldorf. In 1964 Mack, Piene and Uecker arranged the "ZERO Lichtraum (Hommage á Lucio Fontana)" at the 1964 documenta in Kassel. From 1964 to 1966 Mack lived and worked in New York where the Howard Wise Gallery presented a solo exhibition in 1966. Although known for his

minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post– World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Do ...

outdoor sculptures, Mack also produced smaller works, both static and kinetic. ''Light Dynamo #2 from 1966, in the collection of the

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single co ...

, is an example of his rotating disc kinetic sculptures. Since 1991, he has been producing brightly colored, abstract, paintings in

acrylic Acrylic may refer to: Chemicals and materials * Acrylic acid, the simplest acrylic compound * Acrylate polymer, a group of polymers (plastics) noted for transparency and elasticity * Acrylic resin, a group of related thermoplastic or thermosett ...

. 1970 Mack was invited as visiting professor to Osaka, Japan. In the same year he represented Germany at the 1970

(together with Günther Uecker, Georg Karl Pfahler and Thomas Lenk). For the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...

in Munich he created an illuminated "Wasserwolke" (Water cloud). In 1972 he was asked to create a 230 ft tall sculpture for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

headquarters in New York (not realized).

Solo exhibitions

*1957: Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf *1966: Howard Wise Gallery, New York *1972: Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris *1977:

Kunsthalle Düsseldorf Kunsthalle Düsseldorf is an exhibition hall for contemporary art in Düsseldorf. Building The present art centre was built in 1967 in Brutalist architecture by the architects Konrad Beckmann and Brockes. They used commercially available preca ...

*1981: Galerie Lauter, Mannheim *1989: Galerie Neher, Essen *1992: Galerie Lauter, Mannheim *1993: Galerie Schoeller, Düsseldorf *1998: Liechtensteinische Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Vaduz *2001: Galerie Denise René, Paris *2001: Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Teheran *2004: Galerie Geiger, Konstanz *2006: Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art, Düsseldorf *2006: Pergamonmuseum and Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin *2009: Ludwig Museum, Koblenz *2022:

Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana The Marciana Library or Library of Saint Mark ( it, italic=no, Biblioteca Marciana, but in historical documents commonly referred to as ) is a public library in Venice, Italy. It is one of the earliest surviving public libraries and repositori ...

, Venecia

Gallery

Image:Heinz Mack by Lothar Wolleh.jpg, Heinz Mack by

Lothar Wolleh Lothar Wolleh (January 20, 1930 – September 28, 1979) was a well-known German photographer. Until the end of the sixties, Lothar Wolleh worked as a commercial photographer. He made portraits of international contemporary painters, sculptors ...

File:UBUniBwM.jpg, ''Sculpture for the Sky'' (1976), university library of the

Bundeswehr University of Munich 200px, Entrance to the university Bundeswehr University Munich (german: Universität der Bundeswehr München, UniBw München) is one of two research universities in Germany at federal level that both were founded in 1973 as part of the German Ar ...

Neubiberg Neubiberg is a municipality and a village in south-east of Munich, Germany, founded in 1912. It used to have an airport that was used as a Luftwaffe-base in the Third Reich and after the war as a U.S. airbase and in the following years as the Germa ...

File:Muenster Wasserskulptur 7366.jpg, ''Water Sculpture'' (1977),

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state di ...

File:Columne pro Caelo - Heinz Mack.jpg, ''Columne pro Caelo'' (1984), Roncalliplatz,

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

File:MackSkulptur.jpg, ''Großer Vertikaler Rhythmus'' (2008), LangenfeldStadt Langenfeld: Großer Vertikaler Rhythmus
Accessed 1 March 2016

Publications

* Heinz Mack. TRANSIT – zwischen Okzident und Orient. Faszination und Inspiration der Islamischen Kultur im Werk des Künstlers – ein Werkaspekt 1950-2006. Museum für Islamische Kunst, Pergamonmuseum, Berlin. Exhib.: October 7, 2006 – January 21, 2007. . * Heinz Mack – Licht der ZERO-Zeit. Ludwig Museum im Deutschherrenhaus, Koblenz. Exhib.: August 30 – November 1, 2009.

Footnotes

External links

ZERO foundation * Literature by and on Heinz Mac

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mack, Heinz 1931 births Living people People from Giessen (district) German artists Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni People from the People's State of Hesse