display
Düsseldorf (dpa) - The ZERO artist Heinz Mack is the futurist among artists.
The adventurous painter and sculptor was drawn to the Sahara as early as the 1950s.
Mack will be 90 years old on March 8th.
He became famous with silvery reliefs, grids and rotors - and art expeditions to the desert and the Arctic, which were more reminiscent of space missions.
"We were also accused of not having all the cups in the cupboard," he said in an interview with the German press agency.
That was in the 50s.
Today, especially Mack's early works are traded internationally at the highest prices.
Question: You said on your 85th birthday that you wanted to be 100 years old.
Is that still true?
display
Answer: Yes, I still plan to.
The family doctor always leaves disappointed.
I am glad that I am still very healthy.
I work in the studio every day and I am very happy there.
Question: How do you spend your birthday?
Answer: So that nobody notices.
There were over 150 people here on my 80th birthday.
I didn't want to experience that again.
And it wouldn't even be possible because of the pandemic.
Now we will say that we are not there.
But we are really there and life goes on.
The day is just as important to me as the day a year ago and the day next year.
I can't tell.
display
Question: How did you experience the lockdown?
Answer: We were in Ibiza at the time of the first lockdown last year.
We have a house there, wonderful surroundings, no one far and wide.
You live isolated there, you don't see a car, you don't hear anything.
The plan was four weeks, which then turned into three and a half months because there was no longer an airplane.
You couldn't get out.
I then didn't leave my property for several weeks.
It was stressful.
We were trapped, even if our prison was a kind of paradise.
Now I'm lucky that when I'm in the studio, I forget all about it.
Question: An exhibition on the occasion of your 90th birthday is waiting for the opening in the Düsseldorf Art Palace - if the Corona situation allows it.
display
Answer: I've had almost 400 solo exhibitions in 70 years.
This exhibition is an exception because it is the first time that my early work is shown.
For 70 years I only made art and thought art.
Important pictures for the exhibition have also been borrowed from my workshop and my warehouse.
They have hibernated for half a century.
Now they are coming to light.
Question: It is a pity that your exhibition cannot open yet.
Answer: That is of course all dramatic.
I just can't imagine continuing to exclude the museums while opening up other areas at the same time.
Just like food, art is also food.
It doesn't work without that.
This also applies to the art of film, acting and music.
Question: Do you fear serious consequences for the culture after the week-long closings?
Answer: I have my worries there.
Several young artists have already approached me to see if they can work for me.
They can no longer pay their rent.
It's a very serious situation for culture.
State Minister for Culture Grütters should think of the poorest among the artists.
Anyone who has demonstrably lived from their work as an artist and now has no more money, has to be helped.
Question: Which artists were your best friends?
Answer: Friendships are not a matter of course with artists.
But of course there were friendly relationships, for example with Otto Piene, with whom I was at the academy.
And then Günther Uecker soon followed.
I was in Paris for the first time in 1950.
It was the first city in my life without ruins.
There I met Yves Klein and Jean Tinguely.
display
Question: Do you still meet Günther Uecker occasionally?
Answer: Very rarely.
Basically, it's like walking in the desert.
You are completely alone there.
You are a loner as an artist.
In the end you have to go your own way.
You have to decide for yourself which direction to take.
There is no signpost.
Basically everyone goes their own way.
With all their fame, artists like Picasso and Matisse were somehow alone until the end.
Question: As a young artist in 1957 you still shared a studio with Otto Piene and lived there in a kind of shared apartment.
Answer: People didn't like staying in the studio because it was cold, because it was raining in and there was no toilet of their own.
But we were so convinced of our work that we gladly endured it.
When we got tired, we rolled out cardboard and lay down.
Rolled cardboard takes some of the cold away from the concrete.
In short, the conditions were very tough.
The wish arose that what we were doing should also be shown to the public.
The galleries and museums of that time were still busy with the art of our grandfathers and fathers.
Question: But you were avant-garde ...
Answer: We were also accused of not having all the cups in the cupboard.
And that was partly humiliating.
I was once arrested for 24 hours.
That was the time when large posters by Konrad Adenauer were hanging everywhere in Düsseldorf and it was written in very large letters: "No experiments".
I went from advertising column to advertising column with a black paint pot and painted over the word "none" until the police noticed.
I saw it positively and advocated experiments.
Question: What was your relationship with Joseph Beuys?
This year his 100th birthday will be celebrated in a big way.
Answer: He was also a student of Mataré [note: Ewald Mataré, German sculptor, 1887-1965] and ten years older than me.
There was never a human difficulty between Beuys and me.
We got on very well personally.
But when it comes to art, we're astronomically far apart.
They are two worlds.
display
Question: What is the most important stage in your artistic career for you?
Answer: The Sahara Project, which was first published in 1959, is important.
Shortly afterwards I also did my experiments in the desert.
The Sahara project is also so important because today it is clear that, in relation to Europe, I was the first artist to do Land Art.
I was a pioneer in Europe.
Question: The picture of you in a silver suit in the Sahara is famous ...
Answer: This is my own design, and the mother of my domestic helper sewed it together at the time.
The aluminum jacket was ideal for the climate.
At the time, of course, that was also intended for fashion reasons.
I wore a jacket in Paris as early as 1950 that I was very proud of.
I spent all my money on this jacket so that I could be seen in Paris well dressed.
The jacket was made of paper.
Then the worst that could happen happened.
One day there was a heavy rain and the jacket was no longer wearable.
A medical student bought a watercolor from me so that I could buy something else.
Question: The light is the defining element in your art.
Answer: It is and will remain number one.
I cannot imagine a world without colors.
Color plays a big role for me.
Light is the theme of my life.
ABOUT THE PERSON: Heinz Mack, born in 1931, co-founded the artist group ZERO in Düsseldorf in the late 1950s, to which Otto Piene and Günther Uecker also belonged.
Mack's monochrome reliefs and grids from the ZERO period are classics of modern art today.
Mack's works are shown in international museums.
display
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210228-99-626400 / 2
Information about the exhibition Heinz Mack Kunstpalast Düsseldorf