DÜSSELDORF.- On the occasion of Heinz Mack's 85th birthday,
Beck & Eggeling is presenting the solo-exhibtion Korrespondenzen in their gallery spaces in Düsseldorf, opening at 8 April 2016.
For more than 60 years German artist Heinz Mack is working as a painter and sculptor. During this time Mack created an oeuvre in which he continuously involves light as a central artistic element. Light is determining for my art. As far as light is concerned, I want to push the limits of what is possible., says the artist. His oeuvre compromises sculptures, paintings, drawings, prints and photography. Futhermore, Mack creates works for the public space, such as the impressive installation The Sky Over Nine Columns, which realised by Beck & Eggeling was shown in Venice during the Architecture Biennial in 2014 and is currently on view in Instanbul. The installation will travel to Valencia in summer and Sankt Moritz in winter 2016.
For the exhibition Korrespondenzen, Beck & Eggeling will present works by the artist's ZERO-era alongside works from his later career and most recent pieces, giving the viewers the possibility to discover relations and connections between works of all of Mack's creative periods.
Born 1931 in Lollar (Germany), Mack studied at the Academy of Arts in Düsseldorf from 1950 to 1953. He also earned a degree in philosophy at the University of Cologne in 1956. Together with Otto Piene he founded the ZERO-group in 1958, which was joined by Günther Uecker in 1961. Receiving considerable attention with their exhibtion, activities and manifests, ZERO became an international movement. The artists developed a new language of form, using particularly light and movement in their works, in order to overcome the pessimism of post-war years and discover a new, open-minded world through art.
Heinz Mack participated at the documenta in Kassel in 1964 and 1977. In 1970, together with three other German artists, Mack represented Germany at the 35th Venice Biennale. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Teheran presented Heinz Mack as the first western artist after the Iranian Revolution with a comprehensive show in 2011. The same year, a large retrospective at the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Bonn on the occasion of his 80th birthday, proceeded to raise the interest in the art of Heinz Mack.
His work was represented with 23 exhibits in the much acclaimed ZERO-show at the
Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2014. Recent major ZERO-exhibitions in Berlin, Amsterdam and Istanbul achieved international recognition. Mack's artworks are held in more than 130 public collections. His ouevre is documented in a wide range of publications as well as in two films. Heinz Mack lives and works in Mönchengladbach and Ibiza.