MACK, HEINZ
1931 Lollar

Title: Silberwand.
Subtitle: 2 part.
Date: 1961.
Technique: Aluminum foil on Plasterboard.
Measurement: 295 x 452 x 7 cm.



Provenance:
- - Private collection, Cologne (purchased directly from the artist in 1962)


Literature:
- Honisch, Dieter: Mack – Skulpturen 1953–1986, Düsseldorf/Vienna 1986, cat. no. 464, ill.

- Fleck, Robert (ed.): Heinz Mack. Reliefs, Munich 2015, cat. no. 154, ill.



- Monumental wall piece of museum quality from Heinz Mack’s early ZERO period

- A rarity on the art market

- Iconic aluminium relief with a rhythmic, dynamic interplay of space and light: a key work for understanding Heinz Mack’s oeuvre

- In the family’s possession since 1962



Stages of a Life

The world still lay in ruins when, in 1957/58, Heinz Mack together with Otto Piene founded the artists’ group ZERO in Düsseldorf. Shortly thereafter, Günther Uecker joined the group, which rapidly expanded into an international network.

At this “zero point” following the devastation of National Socialist rule and the Second World War, previous artistic conventions seemed exhausted. Radically new paths were pursued, bold experiments undertaken, and spectacular actions and environments realised. Light, air, fire, and water were declared new artistic materials. Born in 1931 in Lollar, Hesse, Heinz Mack studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1950 to 1953 and subsequently pursued philosophy at the University of Cologne until 1956. From an early stage, he actively sought artistic exchange beyond national borders and established international connections.

His repeated participation in major postwar exhibitions—including the documenta in Kassel and the Venice Biennale—solidified his reputation as one of the defining international artists of his generation.

Since the 1970s, Mack has realised numerous projects in public space and spectacular interventions within landscapes. From 1970 to 1992, he served as professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. Today, the artist lives and works in Mönchengladbach and Ibiza.



Structure and Rhythm

The departure toward a new art was fundamentally shaped by the use of previously unconventional materials, often drawn directly from industrial production contexts. Reflective materials such as aluminium, chrome, corrugated glass, Plexiglas, and mirrored surfaces assumed a central role as active artistic elements, whose reflective qualities dissolved the boundaries between object and space. The artwork became an open system in dialogue with its surroundings. This new visual language manifested itself through structure, rhythm, and vibration in place of traditional composition and individual painterly gesture. Ordered pictorial fields emerged through serial arrangements of slats, grids, and relief-like surfaces, allowing light to unfold freely. Light became the carrier of visual dynamism, transforming rigid material into a living and constantly changing phenomenon.



The Monumental Silver Wall

Created in 1962, Silver Wall (Silberwand) belongs among the artist’s most important works from the early ZERO period and exemplifies his aesthetic preoccupation with light, movement, and serial order.

The large-scale work consists of numerous rectangular plaster panels covered with aluminium foil and arranged in a grid-like relief structure. Through differing surface modulations, folds, textures, and orientations of the individual elements, changing light reflections emerge, continuously transforming the softly shimmering relief wall into a vehicle for ever-shifting phenomena of light.The subtle sculptural differentiations generate a dynamic interplay of light and shadow. At the same time, the systematic structure of Silver Wall reflects Mack’s enduring fascination with systems of order and the concept of an unlimited, modular pictorial space.

Doris Hansmann



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#Heinz Mack #ZERO #Germany #Post-War Art #Relief #Light #1960s #Post War.







In accordance with §26 UrhG (German Copyright Act), VAN HAM is obliged to pay a statutory resale royalty on the sale proceeds of all original works of fine art and photography whose authors have not been deceased for 70 years prior to the end of the calendar year of the sale. The buyer shall contribute 1.5% of the hammer price to this fee.