Düsseldorf - THE ZERO artist Heinz Mack is the futurist among the artists. As early as the 1950s, the adventurous painter and sculptor moved to the Sahara. Mack turns 90 on March 8.
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 anymore," he says in an interview with the German Press Agency. That was in the 1950s. Today, Mack's early works in particular are traded internationally at the highest prices.
Question: On your 85th birthday, you said you want to be 100 years old. Is that still the case?
Answer: Yes, I still have that in my in seam. The family doctor always leaves disappointed. I'm glad I'm still healthy. I work in the studio every day and am very happy there.
Question: How do you spend your birthday?
Answer: So no one notices. On my 80th birthday there were over 150 people here. I didn't want to experience that again. And it wouldn't be possible because of the pandemic. Now we will say that we are not there. But we are actually there, and life goes on. For me, the day is just as important as the day a year ago and the day the next year. I can't tell you that.
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, a wonderful environment, far and wide no man. You live there isolated, you don't see a car, you don't hear anything. Four weeks were planned, then three and a half months, because there was no longer a plane. You couldn't get out. I didn't leave my property for several weeks. It was stressful. We were trapped, even though our prison was a kind of paradise. Now I'm lucky that when I'm in the studio, I forget it all.
Question: An exhibition is waiting for the opening in the Düsseldorf Kunstpalast on the occasion of your 90th birthday - if the Corona location allows it.
Answer: I have had almost 400 solo exhibitions in 70 years. This exhibition is an exception, because it shows my early work for the first time. For 70 years I only made art and thought of art. Important paintings have also been borrowed from my workshop and camp for the exhibition. They have been in hibernation of half a century. Now they come to light.
