Light as a starting point to a new future and as a material played a significant role in the art of Heinz Mack. He used reflective materials such as the aluminium in Para Marisol, which is also used in the aircraft industry, and gave them forms which simultaneously capture light and reflect it into space, possibly into infinity. The title refers to Heinz Mack’s partner at the time, the painter and sculptor María Sol ‘Marisol’ Escobar.
Heinz Mack and Otto Piene founded the artist group ZERO in 1957, at the same time as ZERO-kai (later Gutai) was founded in Japan. Heinz Mack drew parallels to Gutai and other groups in a diagram he drew in 1971.
Heinz Mack (*1931)
Para Marisol, 1964
Currently exhibited: Yes (Gallery: From Zero to Action)
Material: Aluminium grille and painted wood on aluminium plate
Size: 230.7 x 207.1 x 12.2 cm
Inv-Nr.: B_022
Image rights: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Keywords:
Previous owner: Galerie Pels-Leusden, Berlin; private collection, Berlin, 1986
Acquisition: Reinhard Ernst Collection, Grisebach, Berlin, 2009
Group exhibitions:
1987
‘Der unverbrauchte Blick: Kunst unserer Zeit in Berliner Sicht’, Martin-Gropius Bau, Berlin
1986
‘Zeitspiegel Berlin’, Galerie Pels-Leusden, Berlin
‘The artists of Informel brought the patina of war into art. Their pictures looked like ancient crusts. They seemed interchangeable and gloomy to us. We wanted to bring more light, more space, more freedom into the world. We wanted nothing to do with the heaviness of this post-war art.’ [1]
The idea of a radical new beginning in art also arose against the background of the fascination with technology in the Federal Republic of Germany of the 1950s and 60s. ‘A heated fundamental discussion sprung up about the future of art: if mankind is going to fly to the moon, how can we still be standing at the easel painting pictures with brushes? Our thesis was: we artists have to broaden our horizons too.’ [2] New, everyday materials such as nails, metals and mirrors began to find their way into the works of the ZERO artists.
Light as a starting point to a new future and as a material played a significant role in the art of Heinz Mack. He used reflective materials such as the aluminium in Para Marisol, which is also used in the aircraft industry, and gave them forms which simultaneously capture light and reflect it into space, possibly into infinity. He also translated the vibrations of light, very noticeable in this work, into actual movement in his kinetic sculptures. The title refers to Heinz Mack’s partner at the time, the painter and sculptor Maria Sol “Marisol” Escobar who studied with Hans Hofmann amongst others in New York in the early 1950s. She is primarily associated with Pop Art and her sculptures were very concerned with indigenous art from the South American continent. Her work featured at documenta 4 in 1968 and the Venice Biennale.
Heinz Mack and Otto Piene founded ZERO in their Düsseldorf studio in Gladbacher Straße in 1957. Their night exhibitions were legendary at the time and a very welcome change from the art institutions that were establishing themselves at the same time. It was in the context of one of these exhibitions that the two artists launched their first magazines, ZERO 1 and 2.
Until then, they had been members of the artists’ group 53, to which Karl Fred Dahmen also belonged. Quadriga in Frankfurt, ZEN 49 in Munich and group 53 in Düsseldorf formed the nucleus of Informel in Germany.
Networking and relating one’s own artistic practice to international movements continued to play a major role at ZERO.
In a diagram he created in 1971, Heinz Mack drew parallels between other groups in the same area as ZERO. At the same time, ZERO-kai (later Gutai) was working along similar lines as their name would imply.
[1] Interview with Heinz Mack, in: Piene im Gespräch, ed. by Jürgen Wilhelm, Munich 2014, p. 84.
[2] Ibid, p. 85.
