About the work
Heinz Mack designs the medium of light in his works and makes it visible as colour. Especially in the series of Colour Chromaticisms, he shows how colour becomes light and light colour. In this sheet, a colour development from blue through turquoise and green to yellow and two shades of orange is shown in a vertically ascending layering of horizontally superimposed colour fields. The chromatic colour fields are experienceable respectively as their own colour values, but are not clearly separated from one another and overlap. Especially their edges are characterised by the painting style of the artist. The painting of Heinz Mack is thus no colour field painting, in which colour areas are precisely delimited. The creative hand instead always remains apparent. This is evident not only in the hatchings and texturing within the individual bands of colour. As a result of the high pigment ratio of the pastel chalk Mack uses here, the colours appear nearly tangible. Each colour segment has its own internal structure, its own colour application and thus its very own character. Nonetheless, the work possesses a harmonious consonance and radiates beneficial lightness despite its complexity thanks to the clear pictorial layout and the spectral colours.
Text authored and provided by Dr Andrea Fink, art historian
The art historian, curator and freelance publicist Andrea Fink studied art history, cultural studies and humanities, modern history and philosophy in Bochum and Vienna. Doctorate in 2007 on the work of the Scottish artist Ian Hamilton Finlay. As a freelance curator and art consultant, her clients include, among others, the Kunstverein (art association) Ahlen, Kunstverein Soest, Wella Museum, Museum am Ostwall Dortmund, ThyssenKrupp AG, Kulturstiftung Ruhr, Osthaus Museum Hagen, Franz Haniel GmbH, Kunsthalle Krems, Austria.
