About the work
The work of Heinz Mack unfolds beyond figuration and traditional composition. The quality of his works instead lies in pure abstraction, is borne by a colourfulness that, especially in the pastels, achieves a very special brilliance, a presence that is as subtle as it is profound.
As in this work from 2021. The brightest area is found beneath the centre of the work. Here, the white of the paper shines through the delicate weave of the lucid, bright yellow pastels. The colourfulness of the sheet unfolds from here – downward from radiant yellow through warm orange to a soft orange-red at the bottom edge of the painting, upwards from turquoise through several lighter shades of blue to a narrow stripe in deep night blue at the top edge of the work. In the process, the artist uses various techniques in dealing with the pastel, leaves the individual stroke layers of the pastel recognisable in an interwoven fabric or blurs the pigments to smooth monochrome areas. The brilliant colours at the same time appear to float in front of the sheet.
“I am interested in”, according to the artist, “[…] A painting in which the colours are concrete, appear as colourful, present matter and at the same time immaterial, as fields of energy, as levels of vibration in the immaterial pictorial space.”
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.
