Heinz Mack on the Fundamentals of Color, Space, and Motion

Megan D Robinson: What was behind founding the ZERO movement?

Heinz Mack: In the mid-1950s, after my studies at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and the University of Cologne, I had an existential crisis, combined with the realization that everything I had learned and achieved so far was not actually new. My doubts turned into despair; how could I forget everything I had learned before in order to discover the unknown? Thus began the adventure of starting from scratch and not looking backwards.

When Otto Piene and I founded the ZERO movement in 1957, our studios were a kind of poorhouse; in the backyard, surrounded by ruins, we were confined to a cultural graveyard, a vacuum of information that is unimaginable today. In these studios, working day and night, we not only dreamed of a better world, but also created works that, as would only later become apparent, could be placed in the context of a worldwide artistic evolution.

ZERO began in Düsseldorf– myself, Piene, and Günther Uecker were all equally active here. We soon came into contact with important artists such as Fontana, Yves Klein, Tinguely, Manzoni, Castellani, Soto, and Schoonhoven. Thus, a unique movement and encounter of artistic ideas and actions developed in Paris, Milan, London, and in the Netherlands. 

A ubiquitous kinship took place among us, and the duplicity of events in different places in the world was striking. Monochromy, achromy, the chromaticity of the rainbow, the breath of light, fire and air, spectral grids, structures, energy fields– all these were brought to visual manifestations in interactive ensembles in our exhibitions and met with our undivided interest. ZERO was– in the hour of the beginning– a dimension of infinite space, in which one could float limitless, carried solely by boundless ideas. A wonderful, liberating experience that will never be forgotten.

MDR: Why is working with light attractive? How does perception play out in your work?

HM: Light and movement, speed and open spaces such as the sky, the desert on the earth and on the surface of the moon, the blue dress of our earth– all this was received by me and my ZERO friends with amazement and great sensitivity. . . With ZERO, a new intellectual language in art emerged, for which we still lacked the words at the beginning.

I was fascinated by one idea in particular: it must be possible to make a powerful light phenomenon vibrate in such a way that its intensity necessarily demands a new environment, the extent of which no longer conforms to the classic rules of dimension, volume, and proportion. Building on this, I conceived the 'Sahara Project' as a 'Jardin Artificiel'– an artificial garden in which my sculptural objects interact with the space and light of the desert. I see my sculptures as 'objects of light in space' and light as a creative material– comparable to a painter's colors.

MDR: Congratulations on such a long career as an artist! How has your work evolved over time?

HM: During the ZERO period, I painted my “Dynamic Structures.” At that time, I wanted to replace the composition that Western painting had developed so artfully for the past 700 years with something new. Instead of an illusionistic pictorial space, which was not entirely overcome even in abstract painting, color now stood in front of the picture, radiating into the space and thus towards the viewer. A new vitality and sensuality of painterly nuance was the aim of the new 'Dynamic Structures' in my work.

The ZERO period ended in 1966, which caused me to question the future of panel painting in general. I distanced myself from the painting studio for more than a quarter of a century. . . In 1991, I returned to painting . . . An important difference between the pictures of yesterday and today is that I used to paint almost exclusively monochrome halftone pictures, but now my passion is strong-colored, large-scale painting, filled with light. 

MDR: What do you hope viewers experience through your work?

HM: I hope that the viewer of my works– beyond the noise of theory and the intellectual deconstructions of our time– will find beauty again. A beauty that does not want to be explained, but rather experienced– in its unmistakable aura, in its sensual presence. They are moments of clarity that defy explanation. Constantin Brancusi once said: 'When you are in the sphere of beauty, you need no explanations.' And that is exactly what applies to my work.

MDR: Do you have any advice for younger artists?

HM: From my experience, I know that ultimately the really existential questions cannot be answered. It is part of the nature of art that one is left alone with it for a lifetime. All the problems that appear here must be recognized and ultimately overcome by each individual. No advice will help! The journey that young artists embark on has no signposts and leads through a boundless space that seems to have no horizon. Such a journey is an adventure that can fail, but it is possible that the desired goal will be reached. This is something that every young artist should wish for.