Heinz Mack

Heinz Mack (1931) is considered internationally to be one of Germany’s most important artists and was a founding member of the ZERO movement.

In 1950 he was a contemporary of Joseph Beuys as a student at the famous Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, to which he also added a course in art education and philosophy. In 1965 Mack acquired a studio in Düsseldorf with Otto Piene, where he began to work with the phenomena of vibration and light.

In 1958 Mack and Piene founded one of the world’s best-known art movements: ZERO, and Günther Uecker also joined in 1961. The core impetus behind ZERO was for the post-war generation to reinvent art from scratch just as German society had completely reinvented itself from 1945. ZERO was totally avant-garde, and works by ZERO artists were highly controversial as they detonated the boundaries of the time.

As well as participating in documenta on multiple occasions, Heinz Mack also represented the Federal Republic of Germany at the XXXV Venice Biennale. Mack’s work was and is featured in museum exhibitions around the world and has also been distinguished with an array of prestigious prizes, most recently with the Moses Mendelssohn Award in 2017.

A central theme in Mack’s work is light, which his sculptures, canvas pieces, and graphics all grapple with. In his works on paper Mack has a unique way of opening up depth in the space.  Mack also carries this impression into his expressive screen prints, which he produces in an unusual process through which the surface of the respective print acquires an intense coloring and produces great visual depth.

“I love color as a medium where light manifests itself. How beautiful is it that we live in a colorful world? If the world were gray I would probably never have become an artist.” – Heinz Mack

► Read our special focus on the ZERO movement here!