Heinz Mack

Basic Data

The painter and sculptor Heinz Mack is one of the leading representatives of kinetic art in Germany, and, besides Günther Uecker and Otto Piene, co-founder of the group ZERO. Mack acquired great international renown through his experimental light reliefs and installations in the desert that made him one of the co-founders of Land Art.

• Born on: 8 March 1931
• Nationality: German
• Studied at: Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, University of Cologne
• Similar artists: Günther Uecker
• Era: Contemporary art
• Stylistic direction: Post-war art, kinetic art, land art

Heinz Mack's artistic key theme is light, a life's theme that he has been revolving around for 50 years as of now in nonrepresentional sculptures and images. His multifaceted works were presented to the public around the whole world in nearly 300 solo exhibitions and a large number of exhibition participations; his artworks are represented at more than 130 public collections. Today, Heinz Mack is regarded as one of the crucial artists in the context of the renewal of art in Germany after World War II.

 

Heinz Mack prices

 

Heinz Mack for sale

Would you like to buy art by Heinz Mack and are you interested in limited edition prints and other original works by the ZERO artist? Under Heinz Mack artworks and editions you will find our current selection of editions by the painter for sale.

 

Limited edition printy by Heinz Mack

The German artist Heinz Mack gained worldwide attention as one of the co-founders of the artist group ZERO. In addition to the reduction of pictorial means to elementary media such as color and light, what was decisive for the painter was his constant interest in experimenting with light, movement and material. His central artistic subjects were light and color and their interactions with each other.

In addition to his painterly work and his monumental sculptures and installations, prints also essentially determine Heinz Mack's oeuvre. In addition to original graphics, this also includes works with ink, pastel colors and watercolors. Already at the beginning of his artistic career, the painter dealt with various printing techniques, such as screen printing on glass, or prints with silver and gold foil embossing. He later turned to the classic printing techniques, such as lithography, serigraphy and woodcuts and linocuts, which he produces in a variety of color spectra in sometimes very complex processes.

We can currently offer you various colored and partly large-format prints by Heinz Mack in our art shop.

 

Silkscreens by Heinz Mack

In the extraordinarily versatile work of Heinz Mack, silkscreen plays a central role in the artistic work of his prints. We can currently offer you five different large-format Heinz Mack silkscreens for sale. All five original prints are colored graphics in a handsigned and numbered edition. The circulation of the works is between 70 and 80 copies per edition. All originals are in exceptionally freshly printed and mint condition. As in Mack's paintings, the silkscreens clearly show how the painter experiments with the aspects of light, space, movement, time, dynamics and vibration, thereby creating versatile serial structures on paper.

In our portfolio of Heinz Mack works, the silkscreen Klaviatur from 2018 is particularly eye-catching because of its monumentality. This large-format graphic measuring 180 x 140 cm is a work that was printed with 120 screens and signed and numbered by the artist. Here Mack superimposes two rows of vertical colored stripes. Not only can a color melody unfold from different tones, the score rhythmizes the sheet and gives it an expression of dynamism.

In addition, you will also find the hand-signed and numbered Heinz Mack graphic Blue Field from 2010 in our portfolio, which was created with 35 screens in a format of 72 x 90 cm. Here the artist once again deals with the subject of light, which he repeatedly takes up in his non-representational art. The abstract depiction of the graphic consists of angular, grid-like and crystalline forms that are characteristic of Mack's pictorial vocabulary. The Heinz Mack screen print Links-Rechts, from 2013, is also composed of this. The two dominant color areas in blue and orange are underlaid in a grid-like grid structure, which gives the sheet an internal structure and suggests associations of fabric or fabric to the viewer .

In contrast, in the Heinz Mack prints for Februar, the Zero artist uses a large, black, grid-shaped area of color that structures the work of art in its detailed transparency, and which is only bordered by several small, intensively colored color blocks at the lower edge of the picture.

You can also find the 112 x 80 cm original screen print Winterklänge in our selection of Heinz Mack works. The print by the contemporary artist is both handsigned and numbered and was printed from 32 Sieves in collaboration with Hans Peter Zimmer. Here the painter declines a chromatic chord of cool blue areas of color next to each other.

 

Unique artworks and other original prints by Heinz Mack

If your interest goes beyond the Heinz Mack prints described above, please feel free to contact us. We would be happy to research other Heinz Mack unique artworks and limited editions for you.

 

Biography

Early years, education and first journeys

Heinz Mack was born in Lollar, Hesse, on 8 March 1931. Shortly after his birth, the family relocated to Krefeld. At the age of 8, Mack started to occupy himself with photography at his uncle's suggestion. The pictures obtained from his childhood mostly show themes and structures taken from the environment, such as recently ploughed fields, black board fences, disposal of grains of maize or flowers, honeycombs or piano keys. Mack obtained his Abitur, the German general qualification for university entrance, in 1950. He studied at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Dusseldorf from 1950 to 1053, from where he graduated with a state examination in handicrafts and art education. During his studies, he created figurative as well as abstract studies and nudes. Subsequently, he took up his studies in philosophy at the University of Cologne, from where he also graduated with a state examination. Afterwards, Mack initially worked as a teacher in Dusseldorf and Essen, pursuing art in his studio at the same time.

 

The beginning of ZERO

Mack founded ZERO together with Otto Piene in 1957; Günther Uecker followed in 1961. The three artists wanted nothing less but a new start in art. Light and movement became the key design elements of an art that was to put the German post-war society's traditional understanding of art to an acid test. Audacious and creative experiments and spectacular art events were characteristic for the early work of Mack and his colleagues, who met at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf. During this early period, the three artists organised joint exhibitions, so-called Abendausstellungen, and published the Catalogue Magazine ZERO Vol. I to III. This phase of his work has been especially crucial for Mack. It led to an intense preoccupation with material, movement and light. During this time, he created painted Dynamische Strukturen (German for dynamic structures) as well as light reliefs and sculptures or kinetic rotors, light stacks, and cubes.

 

Desert, pure nature and light

During the late 1950s, Mack travelled to the Sahara which was followed by the important Sahara project from 1959. Renewed stays in Morocco and Algeria inspired Mack to experiment with light in the desert in 1962 and 1963. He installed a Jardin artificiel consisting of sand reliefs, cubes, mirrors, wing reliefs, sails, flags, and monumental light stacks in the deserts of Africa. Mack was particularly interested in the exploration of pure light in environments that remain untouched by humans; light and nature as well as their mutual impact are central for his life. Light as evidence for the thinking and the awareness and the desert as a zone away from civilisation, as pure nature, create a tension between each other that is interesting for the artist.

Mack lived in New York from 1964 until 1966. He participated in documenta II and III in Kassel together with his artist colleagues Uecker and Piene. They exhibited the light room that they designed jointly. During this time, Mack also met Barnett Newman.

 

Separation from ZERO and own paths

The last joint exhibition in Bonn in 1966 was followed by the separation of ZERO. Mack organised the ZERO-festival at the Rolandseck train station, which was attended by 1000 people celebrating the end of the collective. In the same year, he organised his first solo show in America at the Howard Wise Gallery in New York. There he exhibited the famous Forest of Light that consisted of 20 stacks in which Manhattan was reflected. Mack relocated to Mönchengladbach in 1967, where he maintains his studio and apartment at the Huppertzhof. In the same year, Mack showcased his Farblichtkrone in the German pavilion at the World Exposition in Montreal. Shortly afterwards, he travelled to Djerba in Tunisia. Furthermore, the artist presented artworks from the past 10 years in the so-called Mackazin. The much-debated and lauded film Tele-Mack, in which the artist experimentally explored and documented the energy and power of light, came into being in 1968. During the same year, Mack was appointed a member of the Akademie der Künste von Berlin, to which he belonged until 1992. Mack has been increasingly working in the field of stage design for ballet, opera and play since the late 1960s.

Exhibiting the objects Spiegelplantagen, Wasserskulptur and Feuerwald, Mack took part in the German pavilion at the World Exposition in Osaka, Japan, again in 1970. Furthermore, he realised a 12 metres high light stack in front of the Expo museum. In addition to this, Mack received a teaching position in Osaka. During the same year, Mack represented the Federal Republic together with Thomas Lenk, K.-G. Pfahler and Günther Uecker at the Biennale in Venice.

Mack has been travelling extensively to Arabic and African countries since 1970; these journeys included work stays. From the mid 1970s on, Mack has preferentially turned to artworks in public spheres. In this way, he created a variety of commissioned works for public and private employers which turned Mack into one of the leading artists in this field until today.

The artist married Ute Tietze in 1985. The artist started to maintain a studio on the island Ibiza a few years later.

During the early 1990s, Mack turned to painting again. He created large-format images which he called Chromatische Konstellationen.

 

Late appreciation and endless work

Mack was awarded the Bundestverdienstkreuz, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, in appreciation for his achievement and work as ambassador between the cultures in 2004. The Pergamonmuseum also honoured Mack with a great solo exhibition called Transit zwischen Okzident und Orient. Faszination und Inspiration der islamischen Kultur im Werk des Künstlers. During the same year, an extensive show regarding the achievement and work of the group ZERO took place at the Kunstpalast museum in Dusseldorf. The city of Dusseldorf eventually founded the ZERO-Foundation, which supports the retention of the heritage of the artist group as well as the funding for research and exhibitions. In the same year, Mack received the Ehrenring of his hometown Mönchengladbach. The Ludwig-Muesum in Koblenz showcased a solo exhibition called Heinz Mack- Licht der ZERO-Zeit at the same time.

In June 2004, the group of sculptures The Sky Over Nine Columns on the island Giorgio Maggiore in Venice were unveiled: it consisted of nine golden piers that were eight metres high and coated in more than 800,000 tesseras. In the autumn of the same year, a great retrospective was opened at the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum in New York, which was also to be visited in Amsterdam and Berlin in the following year.

Heinz Mack lives and works in Mönchengladbach and on Ibiza.

 

Exhibitions

Current exhibitions

• 24.03.2023 -27.08.2023 Picasso and the 20th Century Masters. Museum Ludwig Collection - My Art Museum, Seoul

 

Past exhibitions

• 2022 KINETISMUS – 100 Years of Electricity – Kunsthalle Praha, Prag
• 2021 Heinz Mack – Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden, Wuppertal
• 2021 Bad RagARTz 2021 – Internationale Schweizerische Triennale der Skulptur, Bad Ragaz
• 2021 Heinz Mack – kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
• 2020 Le ciel comme atelier – Yves Klein et ses contemporains - Centre Pompidou, Metz, Paris
• 2020 Multiplied: Edition Mat And The Transformable Work Of Art, 1959–1965 – Kemper Art Museum, Saint Louis
• 2020 Drucken ohne Farbe Graphische Experimente ab 1960 – Kunsthalle Mannheim
• 2019 gestalten - ein Jahrhundert abstrakte Kunst im Westen - Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster, Aachen
• 2019 Negative Space. Trajectories of Sculpture - ZKM | Karlsruhe
• 2019 Platons Erben – Die Sammlungen im Kunstmuseum Bayreuth - Kunstmuseum Bayreuth
• 2018 WILDNIS - Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt
• 2018 ZERO. PLEASE TURN! - ZERO-WEEKEND - ZERO foundation Düsseldorf
• 2018 ZERO - Mona - Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart
• 2017 HEINZ MACK. ZERO-MALEREI - Kunstakademie Düsseldorf & Akademie-Galerie, Düsseldorf
• 2016 Kunst in Europa 1945–1968 - ZKM | Karlsruhe
• 2016 Rück – Blick: Kinetika 1967 - Belvedere, Vienna
• 2016 MACK. Just Light and Colour - SSM - Sakip Sabanci Museum, Istanbul
• 2015 MACK. Apollo in meinem Atelier - MKM Museum Küppersmühle, Duisburg
• 2015 MACK. Das Licht meiner Farben - Ulmer Museum
• 2015 ZERO: LET US EXPLORE THE STARS - Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
• 2015 Licht Schatten - Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden
• 2015 ZERO - Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
• 2014 The Sky Over Nine Columns - Architektur Biennale 14., Venice
• 2013 Mack auf Papier - Galerie Geiger, Constance
• 2013 Otto Piene, Heinz Mack and ZERO. Light&Reflection - Galerie Arndt, Singapore
• 2012 Zwischen den Zeiten - Museum Ostwall im Dortmunder U, Dortmund
• 2011 Licht-Raum-Farbe - Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn
• 2011 Heinz Mack zum 80. Geburtstag. 12 Werke aus 6 Jahrzehnten - Samuelis Baumgarte Galerie, Bielefeld
• 2011 Mack. Die Sprache meiner Hand - Museum Kunstpalast, Dusseldorf
• 2011 Heinz Mack. Colour Light Rhythm - Ben Brown Fine Arts, Hong Kong
• 2010 Heinz Mack/Lucio Fontana - Ben Brown Fine Arts, London
• 2009 Heinz Mack. Licht der ZERO-Zeit - Ludwig Museum im Deutschherrenhaus, Coblenz
• 2008 ZERO in New York - Sperone Westwater Gallery, New York
• 2006 Transit zwischen Okzident und Orient - Pergamonmuseum, Berlin
• 2002 Museo Nacional de Ceramica, Valencia
• 2001 Wahlverwandtschaften - Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Teheran
• 1998 Liechtensteinische Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Vaduz
• 1997 Mönchehaus Museum für Moderne Kunst, Goslar
• 1994 Neuer Sächsischer Kunstverein e.V., Dresden
• 1993 Jüdisches Museum, Vienna
• 1991 Zero Mack. Ein Environment mit Licht und Bewegung - Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach
• 1988 Heinz Mack - Europäische Akademie für Bildende Kunst, Trier
• 1984 Galerie Heseler, Munich
• 1979 Schlosspark, Stuttgart
• 1978 Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach
• 1977 Mack. Expedition in Künstliche Gärten - Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf
• 1977 documenta 6, Kassel
• 1976 Galleria E/Arte Fiera, Bologna
• 1975 Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum, Aalborg
• 1973 Heinz Mack - Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
• 1973 Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris
• 1972 Objekte, Aktionen, Projekte - Akademie der Künste, Berlin
• 1971 Lenk Mack Pfahler Uecker - Zacheta-Museum, Warsaw
• 1970 Lenk Mack Pfahler Uecker - Biennale di Venezia 35., Venice
• 1967 Galerie Denise René, Paris
• 1966 Forest of Light - Howard Wise Gallery, New York
• 1966 ZERO - Städtische Kunstsammlung, Bonn
• 1965 Mack Piene Uecker - Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover
• 1964 Galleria II Biblico, Rome
• 1963 Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld
• 1962 Mack Piene Uecker - Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
• 1961 Heinz Mack, Otto Piene - Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna
• 1960 Galerie Diogenes, Berlin
• 1960 Galleria Azimut, Milan
• 1959 Galerie Iris Clert, Paris
• 1957 Galerie Schmela, Dusseldorf

 

Awards

• 2017 Moses Mendelssohn Medal
• 2016 Jan-Wellem-Ring of the city of Düsseldorf
• 2014 Preis für Bildende Kunst, Dortmund
• 2011 Großes Verdienstkreuz mit Stern der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
• 1987 Verdienstorden des Landes Nordrein-Westfalen
• 1970 Adolf-Grimme-Preis
• 1965 1.  Preis für Malerei, 4. Biennale Paris
• 1964 Preis der Biennale San Marino (with Uecker, Piene und Graubner)
• 1963 Premio Marzotto, Italy
• 1958 Kunstpreis der Stadt Krefeld

 

Literature

• Das Sahara-Projekt von Heinz Mack im internationalen Kontext von ZERO und Land Art, 1959-1976, Sophia Sotke, Cologne 2020.
• Mack - ein Künstler in Düsseldorf 1950-2019, Bettina Weiand & Helga Meister, Cologne 2019.
• Taten des Lichts – Mack & Goethe, Barbara Steingießer, Berlin 2018.
• Heinz Mack – ZERO and more, exhibition catalogue, Ben Brown Fine Arts Gallery, London 2015.
• Heinz Mack. Das ist nicht das Selbe! Unique n’est pas semblable!, exhibition catalogue, Galerie Denise René, Paris 2012.
• Mack – 12 Werke aus 6 Jahrzehnten, exhibition catalogue, Samuelis Baumgarte Galerie, Bielefeld 2011.
• Heinz Mack – Farbe, Raum, Licht, hrsg. von Robert Fleck, exhibition catalogue, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Bonn, Cologne 2011.
• Heinz Mack – Early Paintings 1957-1964, exhibition catalogue, Gallery Sperone Westwater, New York 2009.
• Klassische Moderne und Kunst nach ’45, exhibition catalogue, Galerie Nehar Essen, Essen 2009.
• Heinz Mack. Transit zwischen Okzident und Orient. Faszination und Inspiration der islamischen Kultur. Ein Werkaspekt 1950-2006, exhibition catalogue,  Museum für Islamische Kunst im Pergamonmuseum, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz Berlin, Cologne 2006.
• Farbe. Form. Zeichen. Stiftung Piepenbrock, exhibition catalogue, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen: Schloss Gottorf Schleswig, Heidelberg 2002.
• Heinz Mack. Licht im Schwarz, exhibition catalogue, Galerie Schoeller Dusseldorf, Dusseldorf 2001.
• Heinz Mack. Druckgraphik und Multiples, published by Ute Mack, Mönchengladbach 2000.
• Die Intelligenz der Hand. Europäische Zeichnungen von Picasso bis Beuys, exhibition catalogue, Museum für Moderne und Zeitgenössische Kunst: Rupertinum Salzburg, Frankfurt 2000.
• Zero – Mack, exhibition catalogue, Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach 1991.

 

Own writings

• Ars Urbana. Kunst für die Stadt, Heinz Mack, Munich 2008.

 

Collections

Argentina

• Buenos Aires – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires

 

Australia

• Melbourne – National Gallery of Victoria

 

Belgium

• Brussels – Musées Royeau des Beaux-Arts de Belgique

 

Brazil

• Rio de Janeiro – Museu de Arte Moderna

 

Germany

• Aachen – Sammlung Ludwig
• Berlin – Berlinische Galerie
• Berlin – Nationalgalerie Berlin
• Berlin – Bauhaus-Archiv, Museum für Gestaltung
• Bonn – Kunstsammlung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
• Bremen – Kunsthalle Bremen
• Dusseldorf – Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast
• Dusseldorf – Kunstsammlung NRW
• Frankfurt – Städel Museum
• Cologne – Museum Ludwig
• Munich – Pinakothek der Moderne
• Stuttgart – Staatsgalerie

 

England

• London – Victoria & Albert Museum
• London – Tate Modern

 

France

• Strasbourg – Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain
• Paris – Centre Pompidou

 

Greece

• Athens – The George Economou Collection

 

Iran

• Teheran – Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art

 

Israel

• Jerusalem – The Israel Museum

 

Italy

• Venice – Peggy Guggenheim Collection

 

Japan

• Osaka – Osaka Municipal Museum of Fine Art

 

Croatia

• Zagreb – Museum of Contemporary Art

 

The Netherlands

• Amsterdam – Stedlijk Museum
• Rotterdam – Museum Boijmans van Beunigen

 

Austria

• Vienna – Albertina

 

Portugal

• Lisbon – Berardo Collection

 

Switzerland

• Zurich – Kunsthaus Zurich

 

South Africa

• Cape Town – South African National Gallery

                                

USA

• Los Angeles – County Museum of Art
• New York – Museum of Modern Art
• New York – Rockefeller Foundation
• New York – Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
• Washington D.C. – Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden