photograph and copyright
manfredi bellati
New York: Sperone Westwater
– Heinz Mack: From Zero to Today, 1955-2014 Exhbition. At Sperone Westwater the exhibition “Heinz
Mack: From ZERO to Today, 1955–2014.”, until December 13. Mack co-founded the
ZERO group, organizing an inaugural series of one-evening exhibitions with
fellow German artist Otto Piene in Dusseldorf in 1957. An extensive network of
like-minded artists grew out of these early exhibitions, envisioning a
conceptual “ground zero” that would revitalize postwar artistic practice.
Featuring a comprehensive overview of Mack’s work from the ZERO years
(1957–66), the exhibition at Sperone Westwater runs concurrently with the
survey “ZERO: Countdown to Tomorrow, 1950s–60s” at the Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum in New York.
Above. Angela Westwater and
Heinz Mack.
photograph and copyright
manfredi bellati
Sperone Westwater – Heinz
Mack: From Zero to Today, 1955-2014. In
1958, Mack coined the term “light reliefs” to describe shallow wall-mounted
works with patterned metallic surfaces dramatizing the play of light and
shadow. The early paintings on display similarly repress color in favor of
“pure” dynamism, particularly a series of Dynamic Structures, which simulate a
kinetic quality in their sharp configurations of parallel strokes. As Mack
describes, “Individual parallel zones gradually transform themselves from zone
to zone, while at the same time they retain their distinct but mutual character
– in this way they are brought into vibration.” A black and white Dynamic
Structure painting from 1959–60 evokes light flashing across a dark support,
heralding Mack’s growing desire to extend the effects of metallic relief into
other media.
Gian Enzo Sperone
Sperone Westwater– Heinz
Mack: From Zero to Today, 1955-2014. Kinetik Movement (Lammellen-Relief)
(1967) develops the effects of light flashing across a dark support further
through the literal application of neat aluminum strips to a wood surface. The
exhibition presents a full circle of Mack’s engagement with light, from the
development of source imagery to the animation of kinetic and static works
alike.
Above. Heinz Mack – Poeme
De Silence – 94-10 -
front
and back
Sperone Westwater– Heinz
Mack: From Zero to Today, 1955-2014. The
exhibition also features rarely exhibited 1960s photographs recalling similar
experiments of the Bauhaus period. Mack’s photographic experiments resulted in
compelling works whose imagery hovers between the organic and graphic, as well
as generating new sculptural forms.