(born in Lollar, Hessen in 1931)
Relief mit farbigem Plexiglas, 1971, signed on the reverse Mack, aluminium, coloured and colourless Plexiglas, nails on black coloured wooden plate in aluminium frame, 241 x 242 x 6 cm, (PS)

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Provenance:
Private Collection H. and G. Troost, Meerbusch
Private Collection, North Rhine-Westphalia

Literature:
Dieter Honisch, Mack - Skulpturen 1953–1986, vol. I, Düsseldorf/Vienna 1986, p. 508, no. 781

‚The appearance of light in light, of space in space, of space in light and of light in space completely fulfilled my imaginative expectations — if the conditions in which they appeared were ideal. That was where I saw my idealism.‘(1)

It was through an accidental error that Heinz Mack discovered the effects of light on a piece of aluminium foil, which took the structure of his sisal rug for its embossed design. As he trod on this piece of foil while it lay on the floor, it produced a light carpet, a light reflector. In this way, Heinz Mack could see clearly how the light from the aluminium foil was broken up by the embossed pattern of the carpet and, at same time, reflected. From that moment onwards, the effect of light on his works has played a decisive role in the conception of his art. The character of his reliefs is determined by the way they capture light and, at the same time, return it back to their spatial environment. With the aid of light, his massive relief using coloured plexiglass becomes a monumental, immaterial sculpture. Moreover an essential ingredient of this effect is the serial structure of the relief itself, which makes it possible to experience the refractions of light from ever-changing angles, even if they differ only minimally. Thanks to the structure of the relief, in conjunction with the variously shaped aluminium discs and varicoloured plexiglass panes, the work is experienced anew and differently at each viewing. For Heinz Mack, light is not something mystical or something that can be explained scientifically. Rather, he sees ‚in light a creative potential that is capable of bringing about an enhanced quality of appearance‘.(2)

(1) Galerie Schoeller (ed.), Gruppe Zero, Dusseldorf 1998, p. 22
(2) Dieter Honisch, in: Beate Reifenscheid (ed.), heinz MACK Exhibition Catalogue, Bielefeld 2009, p. 36