Der König. 1953/1955, 1991.
Bronze, engraved, with gold-brown patina.
Base with the artist's name, the date and the number, as well as with the foundry mark "H. Noack Berlin". From an edition of six copies. Height: 245.5 cm (96.6 in).
Cast from an oak original from 1953/55. In 1991, Heinz Mack decided to make six bronze casts after the wooden sculpture of the same name from 1953/1955. The sculptures were executed over a period of a couple of years, while they are all dated 1991. This 2017 copy was cast by the art foundry Hermann Noack, Berlin. [CH].
• Light, reflection and their aesthetic effect play a major role in Mack's entire painterly and sculptural oeuvre, especially since the "ZERO" years, and are considered the leitmotif of his work.
• In the work offered here, the light settles on the semi-closed forms of the superimposed wing-like components and breaks on the rivets applied in curved lines and finally reflected by the adjacent surface.
• The sculptures thus achieve a visual transformation through the light: they concretize the space and at the same time become its energetic center.
• Only recently, the Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, showed a comprehensive retrospective of his work (2021) and the ZKM in Karlsruhe will host a grand solo show (1923/24) opening this autumn.

Accompanied by a certificate issued by the Atelier Prof. Heinz Mack, Mönchengladbach, from May 2023.

PROVENANCE: Private collection Luxemburg.

EXHIBITION: (different copy)
Heinz Mack. Bronzeskulpturen 1984-2020, Werkstattgalerie Hermann Noack, Berlin, December 7, 2020 to 2021 Berlin, p. 37 (with color illu.).

Mack begins to "develop objects [..] on which the light could settle very directly. He doesn't copy the light, but forces it to present itself, to participate in the production of a certain optical quality. [.] Incidentally, this applies equally to artificial and natural light. In Mack's sculptures, the luminous quality of the light becomes clear, not so much the quality of the lighting."

Dieter Honisch, in: Mack. Skulpturen 1953-1986, Düsseldorf/Vienna 1986, p. 12.

"I cannot separate the space from the sculpture. If I place a sculpture in different spaces – be it indoors or outdoors – its appearance will be different in each case. Ideally, a certain space, a certain light, a certain sculpture and a certain viewer combined. This seems self-evident, but it is not."

Heinz Mack, quoted from: Dieter Honisch, Mack, Skulpturen 1953-1986, Düsseldorf/Vienna 1986, p. 85.