Heinz Mack
Dynamic Structure
Artist
Heinz Mack
(1931, Lollar), German
Original Title
Dynamic Structure
Date1959-1960
Mediumsynthetic resin on hardboard
Dimensions100 × 140 cm
Classificationspaintings
Credit LineKunsthalle Praha
DescriptionHeinz Mack was a prominent figure of the post-war art scene. Along with Otto Piene, they co-founded the art group ZERO (1957–1966). The group’s work drew on art’s new role in society and pursued a fusion of art with science and technology, meant to imbue the human-inhabited environment with new, positive values. Mack always primarily saw himself as a sculptor and painter; while he also used traditional materials and handicraft techniques, his work heavily incorporates technical innovations and prefabricated industrial materials. His kinetic and perceptual artworks incorporate light and vibrations, achieved via rotating pieces and working with the transparency and opacity of materials, through which he explored questions of movement, space, and time. His lumino-kinetic sculptures include different types of light reliefs, cubes, rotors, and steles, constructed using aluminium as well as aircraft and spacecraft technology. Apart from sculptures, Mack also made oil paintings, pastels, Indian ink drawings, graphics, and photographs. However, he intentionally avoided using colour, only beginning to incorporate it in 1991, when created monumental paintings which fuse colour and light, thus producing a sensuous, dynamic yet still harmonious whole. An important component of Mack’s oeuvre are his designs for the reshaping of public spaces and church interiors. With the ZERO group, he also took part in expeditions into the desert and the Antarctic, where they used the untouched nature as a setting for expansive art installations and utopian projects based on experimentation with light.
Dynamic Structure (1959–1960) exemplifies Mack’s radical approach to painting, reflecting a new social reality which he had thematized, using different mediums, since the mid-1950s. The painting evidence’s Mack’s refusal of gradually constructed composition and subjectively conceived painterly gestures, supplanting them with an emphasis on structure, which is also a central element of his broader oeuvre. The additive ordering of pictorial elements purposely accentuates the painting’s links to music and the principle of seriality. Mack summarized his conception of painting in his contribution to the first edition of the magazine ZERO (1958), titled The New Dynamic Structure. In the text, he primarily focused on questions related to vibrations and structure, which play a central role in his pictorial work. In this context, vibrations must be understood in connection with space and time; meanwhile, the structure which movement passes through is meant to represent a deliberate counterpart to traditional, static composition.
Heinze Mack (born 1931, Lollar) received his artistic education at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (1950–1953). He subsequently studied philosophy at the Universität zu Köln (1953–1955), gaining valuable insights which would later influence his artistic practice. His first solo exhibition took place at the Galerie Schmela in Düsseldorf in 1957. During this early stage of his career, Mack also undertook several journeys to the Sahara Desert—the first taking place in 1962—where he created projects which anticipated land art. An important milestone in Mack’s career was the 1965 exhibition Light and Movement (Kunsthalle Bern; Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Vienna; Kunsthalle Baden-Baden; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Städtisches Museum Recklinghausen; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels), which was the first significant exhibition of kinetic art. In 1967, he had his first solo exhibition in Paris at the legendary Galerie Denise René. Later, in 1974, the Galerie Denise René also hosted his first solo show in the New York City. In 1970, Mack exhibited a series of lumino-kinetic objects at the German pavilion of the 35th Venice Biennale. He also presented his work at documenta 2 (1959), documenta 3 (1964), and documenta 6 (1977) in Kassel, Germany. His first major retrospective took place in 1973 at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Since then, his work has received constant recognition through solo and group exhibitions. Between 1970 and 1980, Mack also created several monumental sculptures in public spaces throughout Germany. He is the laureate of numerous art prizes, and his work is included in the collections of art institutions worldwide. He was also previously a visiting professor at the Osaka University of Arts and, until 1992, a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts; in 2015 he was named an honorary member of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Research on the ZERO movement and its artistic contribution is the focus of the ZERO Foundation, established in Düsseldorf in 2008, which also holds a collection of many important works by the group’s artists.
Dynamic Structure (1959–1960) exemplifies Mack’s radical approach to painting, reflecting a new social reality which he had thematized, using different mediums, since the mid-1950s. The painting evidence’s Mack’s refusal of gradually constructed composition and subjectively conceived painterly gestures, supplanting them with an emphasis on structure, which is also a central element of his broader oeuvre. The additive ordering of pictorial elements purposely accentuates the painting’s links to music and the principle of seriality. Mack summarized his conception of painting in his contribution to the first edition of the magazine ZERO (1958), titled The New Dynamic Structure. In the text, he primarily focused on questions related to vibrations and structure, which play a central role in his pictorial work. In this context, vibrations must be understood in connection with space and time; meanwhile, the structure which movement passes through is meant to represent a deliberate counterpart to traditional, static composition.
Heinze Mack (born 1931, Lollar) received his artistic education at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (1950–1953). He subsequently studied philosophy at the Universität zu Köln (1953–1955), gaining valuable insights which would later influence his artistic practice. His first solo exhibition took place at the Galerie Schmela in Düsseldorf in 1957. During this early stage of his career, Mack also undertook several journeys to the Sahara Desert—the first taking place in 1962—where he created projects which anticipated land art. An important milestone in Mack’s career was the 1965 exhibition Light and Movement (Kunsthalle Bern; Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Vienna; Kunsthalle Baden-Baden; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Städtisches Museum Recklinghausen; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels), which was the first significant exhibition of kinetic art. In 1967, he had his first solo exhibition in Paris at the legendary Galerie Denise René. Later, in 1974, the Galerie Denise René also hosted his first solo show in the New York City. In 1970, Mack exhibited a series of lumino-kinetic objects at the German pavilion of the 35th Venice Biennale. He also presented his work at documenta 2 (1959), documenta 3 (1964), and documenta 6 (1977) in Kassel, Germany. His first major retrospective took place in 1973 at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Since then, his work has received constant recognition through solo and group exhibitions. Between 1970 and 1980, Mack also created several monumental sculptures in public spaces throughout Germany. He is the laureate of numerous art prizes, and his work is included in the collections of art institutions worldwide. He was also previously a visiting professor at the Osaka University of Arts and, until 1992, a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts; in 2015 he was named an honorary member of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Research on the ZERO movement and its artistic contribution is the focus of the ZERO Foundation, established in Düsseldorf in 2008, which also holds a collection of many important works by the group’s artists.
