German artist Heinz Mack has left his mark on the world through both a pioneering contribution to the question of a new concept of art that has been of fundamental importance since the postwar period, and, along with Otto Piene, as the founder of the ZERO movement, an international artists’ network devoted to the topics of light and movement. This book offers the first overview of Mack’s philosophy of art as well as his multifaceted oeuvre.

A sculptor and painter for more than sixty years, Mack has created a wide-ranging body of work, starting with the ZERO period around 1960 and continuing in the present day. As this book shows, the essential aspects of his works—including the significance of light, structure, and color—are portrayed with often surprising perspectives. The authors accompany Mack in his constant search for a new concept of art, following him from ZERO through his legendary Sahara Project—a series of installations he made in the Tunisian desert from 1962 to 1976—to his light art and most recent paintings. Throughout, they discover little-known connections to minimal art, land art, Yves Klein, and Constantin Brancusi, among others. This journey through Mack’s rich oeuvre culminates in a look at his passionate plea for the “idea of beauty in the twenty-first century.”

​Containing fifty color illustrations, Heinz Mack brings a fresh perspective to this artist’s extensive career.