Galerie Perrotin Paris has launched an ambitious and highly significant exhibition that attempts to revive German artist Heinz Mack from the history of abstract art and reestablish his presence on the French artistic scene, which according to Galerie Perrotin has diminished since the 1973 retrospective of Heinz Mack’s work at the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris.Curated by Matthieu Poirier, a Paris-based independent art historian, critic, and curator, “Heinz Mack: Spectrum” brings together more than 70 works, including works that have never before been seen in public. The exhibition spans all formats, natures, and periods of Mack’s oeuvre, with the aim of documenting and tracing what Poirier describes as “the main outlines of a complex journey.”Born in 1931 in Lollar, Mack is best known for his contributions to op art, light art, and kinetic art. He attended the Academy of Arts Düsseldorf during the 1950s, earned a degree in philosophy at the University of Cologne in 1956, and in 1957 together with Otto Piene founded the ZERO movement, a “ground zero” for the development of new design principles and aesthetic ideas.The central theme of Mack’s work is light, which he explores through the creation of three and two dimensional works, including sculptures, paintings, drawings, India ink, pastels, graphics, photography and bibliophilic works. “My works only live when they have their light, the right light, because they are objects of light, instruments of light and an expression of lights energy,” he states.“From one period to another, Mack’s esthetic search has been a constant exploration – both systematic and sensual – of the lumino-chromatic spectrum and its perceptive thresholds,” says Poirier. “This immaterial goal took on a philosophical dimension for the artist, one that was paradoxically based on highly material means, and that used the raw simplicity of natural or manufactured materials.”
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