The ceramic pieces are an embodiment of Mack’s lifelong commitment to light, while showcasing the artist’s masterful play with materiality and perception.
Preview Day: September 5, 2024 | Invitation Only
On View: September 6 – 8, 2024
Casa Cipriani | 10 South Street, New York, NY 10004
August 28, 2024 (New York City, United States) – Heinz Mack, renowned German artist and sculptor of light, is set to unveil a series of 30 ceramic sculptures and reliefs for the first time in the United States, at the Independent 20th Century Fair at Casa Cipriani in New York City, from September 5 – 8, 2024. Presented by Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art with the MACK FOUNDATION, the solo presentation is a testament to the artist’s unwavering dedication to exploring the boundless possibilities of light and its ability to infuse endless motion into the static nature of materials. For over seven decades, Mack has been making paintings and sculptures that harness the intrinsic essence of light.
As a pioneering figure of the German postwar ZERO movement – led by Heinz Mack, Günther Uecker and Otto Piene – the artist revolutionized the concepts of color, space, and motion. His diverse body of work features paintings, large-scale sculptures made of aluminum, stainless steel, acrylic glass and natural stone, revealing an intricate interaction between light, movement and the environment. In the 1990’s Mack’s practice extends to ceramics, further enhancing his lifelong fascination with luminosity, now woven into the process of molding clay with fire and beaming through the designs’ textured surfaces. The freedom of a moldable medium, and the myriads of possibilities to transform the surface of each piece, shapes a new sculptural language.
Paying attention to the surfaces, as light refracts, reflects, inhales and exhales, just like in his renowned light reliefs referring to his pivotal ZERO-era works in polished aluminum, each piece has a distinctive character. The artist’s appreciation for gold, silver, platinum, white or deep black paint, but also very clear, intense monochrome colors, mirrors his exploration of light and color in his painting practice. Mack’s ceramic sculptures can give a sense of temporal vertigo. Elemental and futuristic, they reflect the present within the medium of an ancient practice. Attracted to the longevity of ceramics, Mack expands, “ceramics are not only among the oldest artifacts known to mankind but have also survived for thousands of years without showing the slightest trace of patina. Perhaps in old age the artist has a deeper, unconscious interest in objects that can become very old with dignity.”
NOTES TO EDITORS:
The solo exhibition by Heinz Mack will be presented by Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art with the MACK FOUNDATION at the Independent 20th Century Art Fair in New York City.
Fair Dates:
September 5 – 8, 2024
Fair Hours:
September 5, 2024: 11 AM – 8 PM (By Invitation)
September 6, 2024: 11 AM – 7 PM
September 7, 2024: 11 AM – 7 PM
September 8, 2024: 11 AM – 6 PM
About Heinz Mack:
Heinz Mack’s central artistic theme is light. His abstract sculptures and paintings serve as media for this interest. In the 1950s Heinz Mack developed his own language of light and color and is regarded as a leading representative of kinetic art. “Light is crucial to my art. As far as light is concerned, I want to go to the limits of what is possible.” Heinz Mack's complete oeuvre is extraordinarily versatile: sculptures made of various materials, light steles, light rotors, light reliefs, and light cubes. His oeuvre also includes paintings, drawings, ink works, pastels, prints, photography, and bibliophilic works as well as the design of public squares, church rooms, stage sets, and mosaics.
About MACK FOUNDATION:
The MACK FOUNDATION, a non-profit organization founded by Heinz Mack in 2024 and will be launched in autumn, is dedicated to the collection, exhibition and preservation of Heinz Mack’s art and archive. The Foundation holds a substantial collection of artworks, covering all groups of works from his artistic oeuvre. It also preserves an extensive archive of original documents, notes and publications on the artist’s life and work. The objectives of the Foundation include promoting public knowledge, awareness, and appreciation of the work. The preservation of the artistic legacy through the continuous development, maintenance and extension of the collection and archive. The promotion of scholarly work and its publications, whether in the field of art history or in related fields, which show connections to Heinz Mack’s work, interests, and intentions. The enhancement of communication and cooperation with museums, collections, and comparable institutions as well as the promotion of exhibitions and publications.
About Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art:
Beck & Eggeling has made a diverse contribution to cultural life for 30 years. A consistent, high-quality program with impressionist, expressionist, classical and postwar modernist works has allowed Beck & Eggeling to establish itself as one of the leading galleries in the international art market.
At the same time, the gallery is committed to international contemporary art. Beck & Eggeling is currently staging exciting exhibitions at three extraordinary venues in Düsseldorf and Vienna. Furthermore, the gallery is represented at prestigious art fairs worldwide with this differentiated and ambitious offering.
With well over 100 publications from their in-house art publishers, Beck & Eggeling facilitates new knowledge and enriches their exhibitions with their own texts as well as scholarly articles about art by prominent authors. Driven by curiosity and a love of art, Ute Eggeling and Michael Beck also carry out large-scale international projects outside their gallery space.
Image Credits:
1. Heinz Mack, Ohne Titel, 2020; 42 x 10 x 10 cm, Ceramic. Courtesy of Heinz Mack Studio.
2. Heinz Mack, Ohne Titel, 1997; 39.5 x 15 cm, ceramic. Courtesy of Heinz Mack Studio.
3. Heinz Mack, Ohne Titel, 2020; 86.5 x 19.5 x 15.5 cm, Ceramic. Courtesy of Heinz Mack Studio.
4. Heinz Mack, Ohne Titel, 2017; 31 x 30 x 30 cm, Ceramic. Courtesy of Heinz Mack Studio.
5. Heinz Mack, Ohne Titel, 2016; 49 x 38.5 x 4 cm, Relief / Ceramic. Courtesy of Heinz Mack Studio.
6. Heinz Mack, Ohne Titel, 2016; 49 x 40 x 4 cm, Relief / Ceramic. Courtesy of Heinz Mack Studio.