Heinz Mack *
(born in Lollar, Hessen 1931)
Silberfächer (Silver Fan), 1967, signed and dated mack 67 on the reverse and with direction arrow, aluminum, 103 x 132 x 7.5 cm, in artist´s aluminum frame
Certificate:
Ute Mack, Mack Foundation, Mönchengladbach, October 2026
The work is listed in the archive-supplement to the catalogue raisonné by Dieter Honisch, Skulpturen 1953 – 1986, with no. H N 921 B.
Provenance:
Galerie Alfred Schmela, Dusseldorf (there titled Silbermohn)
Collection B Niehues (acquired from the above in 1967)
Private Collection, North Rhine-Westphalia (by inheritance to the current owner)
‘The works I have created over the past thirty years are alive only when they have “their” light, the “right” light. For they are objects of light, instruments of light and an expression of its energy,’ the sculptor Heinz Mack once declared, adding:
‘Sometimes I despair because so many things touch, influence and confuse me:
but it is always light that has fascinated me – and, to be precise, the dreams one dreams when light sleeps with matter. This love is proof of God.’
(Heinz Mack, quoted in Dieter Honisch, Mack. Skulpturen, Düsseldorf/Vienna 1986, p. 462)
From the late 1950s onwards, at a time when many artists were seeking to move beyond the subjective gestures of an individual artistic hand and exploring alternative modes of expression in the realities of nature, technology and everyday life (in effect, experimenting with a new objectivity in the language of art), Heinz Mack employed pared-down structures as a means of establishing a different kind of dialogue with reality. Increasingly convinced that the resources of painting were inadequate to realise his vision of a new artistic engagement with the real world, he turned more intensively to sculpture and, in particular, to relief. In a text of 1958, the artist wrote: ‘An unexpected means of making aesthetic movement visible presented itself when I happened to step on a thin sheet of metal lying on a sisal carpet. When I picked up the sheet, light was given the opportunity to vibrate. […]
‘My metal reliefs […] which I would prefer to call light reliefs, and which are shaped solely
by the pressure of the fingers, require light rather than colour in order to come alive. When polished to a mirror finish, even the slightest relief is sufficient to disturb the stillness of light and set it vibrating.’
(Heinz Mack, quoted in Dieter Honisch, p. 12)
From 1961, an alternative to metal foil was provided by so-called honeycomb, an extremely fine aluminium mesh developed for the aerospace industry. This resilient mesh, formed from regular hexagonal cells on the principle of a honeycomb, could be stretched or gathered by hand. Mack used it to create delicate structures that he described as wings or fans. Since the material was both transparent and reflective, its surface produced the effect of a glittering flow of light. Resembling fragile, glass-like plants, these works, with poetic titles such as ‘The Garden of Eden’, ‘The Garden in the Garden’ and, as in the present example, ‘Light Flower’, embody the dual character of an enthusiasm for technology profoundly informed by an equally powerful affinity with nature.
Specialist: Dr. Petra Maria Schäpers
(born in Lollar, Hessen 1931)
Silberfächer (Silver Fan), 1967, signed and dated mack 67 on the reverse and with direction arrow, aluminum, 103 x 132 x 7.5 cm, in artist´s aluminum frame
Certificate:
Ute Mack, Mack Foundation, Mönchengladbach, October 2026
The work is listed in the archive-supplement to the catalogue raisonné by Dieter Honisch, Skulpturen 1953 – 1986, with no. H N 921 B.
Provenance:
Galerie Alfred Schmela, Dusseldorf (there titled Silbermohn)
Collection B Niehues (acquired from the above in 1967)
Private Collection, North Rhine-Westphalia (by inheritance to the current owner)
‘The works I have created over the past thirty years are alive only when they have “their” light, the “right” light. For they are objects of light, instruments of light and an expression of its energy,’ the sculptor Heinz Mack once declared, adding:
‘Sometimes I despair because so many things touch, influence and confuse me:
but it is always light that has fascinated me – and, to be precise, the dreams one dreams when light sleeps with matter. This love is proof of God.’
(Heinz Mack, quoted in Dieter Honisch, Mack. Skulpturen, Düsseldorf/Vienna 1986, p. 462)
From the late 1950s onwards, at a time when many artists were seeking to move beyond the subjective gestures of an individual artistic hand and exploring alternative modes of expression in the realities of nature, technology and everyday life (in effect, experimenting with a new objectivity in the language of art), Heinz Mack employed pared-down structures as a means of establishing a different kind of dialogue with reality. Increasingly convinced that the resources of painting were inadequate to realise his vision of a new artistic engagement with the real world, he turned more intensively to sculpture and, in particular, to relief. In a text of 1958, the artist wrote: ‘An unexpected means of making aesthetic movement visible presented itself when I happened to step on a thin sheet of metal lying on a sisal carpet. When I picked up the sheet, light was given the opportunity to vibrate. […]
‘My metal reliefs […] which I would prefer to call light reliefs, and which are shaped solely
by the pressure of the fingers, require light rather than colour in order to come alive. When polished to a mirror finish, even the slightest relief is sufficient to disturb the stillness of light and set it vibrating.’
(Heinz Mack, quoted in Dieter Honisch, p. 12)
From 1961, an alternative to metal foil was provided by so-called honeycomb, an extremely fine aluminium mesh developed for the aerospace industry. This resilient mesh, formed from regular hexagonal cells on the principle of a honeycomb, could be stretched or gathered by hand. Mack used it to create delicate structures that he described as wings or fans. Since the material was both transparent and reflective, its surface produced the effect of a glittering flow of light. Resembling fragile, glass-like plants, these works, with poetic titles such as ‘The Garden of Eden’, ‘The Garden in the Garden’ and, as in the present example, ‘Light Flower’, embody the dual character of an enthusiasm for technology profoundly informed by an equally powerful affinity with nature.
Specialist: Dr. Petra Maria Schäpers
