Born in Lollar, Hesse, in 1931, Heinz Mack attended the Düsseldorf State Academy of Art from 1950 to 1953 (state examination) and completed his studies in philosophy at the University of Cologne in 1956, also with a state examination.
Together with Otto Piene, he founded the ZERO group in Düsseldorf in 1957.
In addition to participating in Documenta II (1959) and Documenta III (1964), he also represented the Federal Republic of Germany at the XXXV Venice Biennale in 1970. In the same year he received a professorship for a teaching assignment in Osaka (Japan) and became a full member of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, of which he remained a member until 1992.
Heinz Mack has been awarded important prizes, including the Art Prize of the City of Krefeld (1958), the Premio Marzotto (1963), the 1st Prix arts plastiques of the 4th Biennale de Paris (1965), the 1st Prize of the international competition Licht 79 of the Netherlands (1979), the Grand Culture Prize of the Rheinischer Sparkassenverband (1992) and the Prize of the Kulturstiftung Dortmund (2012). In 2011, the artist was honored with the ‘Grand Cross of Merit with Star’ of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2015, Heinz Mack was unanimously elected an honorary member of the Düsseldorf Art Academy by the Academy Senate. The city of Düsseldorf awarded Heinz Mack the Jan Wellem Ring in 2016. In 2017, Heinz Mack was awarded the Moses Mendelssohn Medal.
To date, his work has been shown in almost 300 solo exhibitions and many participations in exhibitions. His works are represented in 136 public collections. Numerous books and catalogs as well as two films document his work.
