Heinz Mack - Ohne Titel, Farbchromatik (Untitled, Colour Chromaticism), 1992
Pastel chalk on handmade paper
77 x 105 cm / framed 109 x 137 cm
30 x 41 inch / framed 42 x 53 inch
signed bottom right, dated: “mack 92”
– with handmade modelframe and non-reflective pane –
N 9409
Heinz Mack - Ohne Titel, Farbchromatik (Untitled, Colour Chromaticism), 1992
Pastel chalk on handmade paper
77 x 105 cm / framed 109 x 137 cm
30 x 41 inch / framed 42 x 53 inch
signed bottom right, dated: “mack 92”
– with handmade modelframe and non-reflective pane –
N 9409
About the work
Figuration, central perspective, composition – none of these play any role whatsoever in the work of Heinz Mack. In their place, criteria like structure and pattern, sequence and repetition, rhythm and vibration took precedence from the start. The parallels of his serial structures with the reduced forms of modern and contemporary music based on repetition, with the twelve-tone technique, with musical minimalism, with the serial music of Steve Reich or Philip Glass are no coincidence, but instead result almost of necessity. This is because music is of central importance in the life of the artist, next to his actual profession: at the start of his career, Heinz Mack studied piano and discovered a love of the “swinging rhythm” of jazz in the 1960s in New York. He is accompanied and inspired by music in his work: by Mozart, Bach, Chopin, Ravel, Stravinsky, Messiaen and Ligeti. The artist still plays piano regularly today and refers to some of his colourful scores as “keys”.
“The autonomy of my painting must have the same significance is it has in music”, the artist emphasises. “I also suppose that my musicality and my interest in timbres and rhythms influence my painting. Music and painting are two beautiful sisters, who must both be loved equally.”
One might call the Colour Chromatic of 1992, drawn with pastel chalk on handmade paper, an orchestration in a minor key. It is defined by subtle colouring, which one sees less often in the work of the artist. Rich in nuances, the individual shades transition into one another, develop from left to right from dark brown through orange coloured hues to yellow and even blue green in the right section of the picture. Rectangular forms that are slightly offset and interlocked with one another using hatching develop in vertical and horizontal rows. Sometimes darker and more subtle, sometimes a little brighter and more delicate, the individual cadences join to form a quiet melody of colour.
Text authored and provided by Dr. Doris Hansmann, Art historian
Studies of art history, theater, film and television, English and Romance Languages at the University of Cologne, doctorated in 1994. Research assistant at the Art Museum Düsseldorf. Lecturer and project manager at Wienand Verlag, Cologne. Freelance work as an author, editor and book producer for publishers and museums in Germany and abroad. From 2011 chief editor at Wienand Verlag, from 2019 to 2021 senior editor at DCV, Dr. Cantz’sche Verlagsgesellschaft, Berlin. Numerous publications on the art of the 20th and 21st centuries.