Introducing The Mack Foundation | A Tribute To Heinz Mack’s Artistic Legacy Through Cultural And Academic Initiatives

The newly established MACK FOUNDATION holds an extensive collection of Heinz Mack’s works from every stage of his career and is dedicated to preserving his diverse, visionary legacy while fostering continuous appreciation of his art. Nestled on the picturesque 16th-century Huppertzhof estate in North Rhine-Westphalia, where the 93-year-old artist has worked since the 1960s and continues to create today, the MACK FOUNDATION houses an extensive archive of his oeuvre and relevant documentation, serving as a vital resource for cultural institutions, collectors and scholars dedicated the art-historical significance of his work. In contrast to the ZERO Foundation, co-founded by Mack in 2008 to preserve the collective legacy of all artists within the international ZERO movement, in which he played a key role, this new foundation is dedicated solely to Mack’s body of work, thereby establishing its own distinct identity. 

Spanning a career of over seven decades, Heinz Mack reshaped post-war art history through his pioneering contributions to light art. As a founding member of the avant-garde ZERO movement alongside Otto Piene, he helped establish an art form that centered on universal elements, challenging conventional boundaries, and influencing both the visual language and philosophical discourse of the time. His innovative approach, which redefined the relationship between natural and artificial forces in art, earned him international acclaim, with his works continuing to be featured in over 170 public collections worldwide, including permanent displays at prestigious institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum and MoMA in New York, the Tate Modern in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

First Initiatives

The MACK FOUNDATION kicks off its journey with two inaugural projects that stand as testaments to its mission to foster enduring partnerships with cultural institutions and support scholarly research. One of these initiatives is the promotion of ‘MACK – FACE TO FACE’, a thorough examination of the artist’s life and work, written by Robert Fleck, a professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, which is a key institution in Mack’s early artistic education. Alongside the publication, the foundation will also donate one of Mack’s signature light reliefs from the ZERO period to the Busch-Reisinger Museum at Harvard Art Museums, the only institution in North America dedicated to studying art from German-speaking countries. 

The MACK FOUNDATION as a Point of Reference

The foundation’s collection provides a cohesive narrative of Mack’s expansive career, addressing the fragmentation caused by the global dispersion of his works. Spanning from his student years in the 1950s at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf to the present day, it includes key pieces from every phase of his artistic journey, such as works from the ZERO period like the Dynamic Structures, installations, sculptures, reliefs, steles, cubes, kinetic objects, rotors, project ideas, models, drawings, pastels, inks, ceramics, collages, and photographs, as well as his more recent Chromatic Constellations paintings, which he has been creating since 1991. The foundation also houses an extensive archive of secondary materials on Mack’s life and work, that complement and contextualize the artworks, including original documents, publications, photographs, films, sound recordings, sketches, and correspondence. By unifying these works and documents, the foundation possesses the expertise needed to standardize Mack’s legacy, offering collectors and institutions the opportunity to register and authenticate their pieces. As an overarching entity that transcends the diverse locations and eras of his work, the MACK FOUNDATION serves as the definitive authority on all inquiries related to the artist, his life, his oeuvre, and the ideals and unrealized projects that remain integral to his vision.

The MACK FOUNDATION as a Patron of Academia

In addition to raising public awareness through exhibitions and permanent loans, the foundation positions itself as a patron of academia through initiatives such as its year-round PhD support program. The program seeks to inspire fresh academic perspectives on Mack’s work, unlocking a range of new insights into his legacy and the movements associated with him. Doctoral candidates are supported with both logistical assistance for the archive and, upon board approval, financial aid, thereby facilitating the research process at every level. This initiative, most importantly, reinforces the foundation’s role as an active contributor to academic institutions, a role that extends far beyond solely serving as an archival resource.