Heinz Mack
Pyramide + Horizont
1972
Aluminium, hand-embossed, on fibreboard. In metal frame 100 x 130 x 5 cm. Signed and dated 'Mack 72' twice verso on fibreboard, titled 'Pyramide + Horizont' and directional arrows.
With pyramid and horizon a significant specimen was created for the work series of the silver light reliefs. Its dynamic effect emerges from the formed aluminium plate which reflects the light and sets it into rhythmic vibrations. On the even structure, the surface is divided up into three geometric shapes that influence the impression of the reflected light by means of their shape. The strict geometry is decomposed through its associative links providing further emphasis to the radiance of the work.
The term light relief is formulated by “[…] Heinz Mack as early as 1958 in order to characterise those highly polished metal reliefs which reflect the light in such an intensive manner that a 'relief of light' emerges and the carrier of the light, the metal relief itself, is almost outshined in its materiality; a metal relief thus becomes a light relief. Corresponding to the finely modulated surfaces of the metal relief, the light also appears to have been formed and thus becomes visible in a new manner. The light almost floats above the carrier and seems to vibrate - these light structures are typical examples of the so-called virtual movement which actually does not take place, it only emerges in the eye of the beholder.” (Dieter Honisch, Mack, Skulpturen 1953-1986, Düsseldorf i.a. 1986, p.312)
Catalogue Raisonné
Honisch 769
Provenance
Private collection, South Germany
Literature
Robert Fleck, Heinz Mack Reliefs, Munich 2015, no. 92, p.175 with colour illus.