In Schwarze Dynamische Struktur, 1963, Heinz Mack continues his reflection on the concepts of movement and dynamism, ideas that played an essential role in the practice of the ZERO group during the second half of the 1950s. This work - as the title suggests - is one of Mack’s studies of the ‘New Dynamic Structure,’ a term that was coined by the artist to define a new concept of painting. This theory marked a shift away from post-war conventional abstraction, with an interest in pure colour and form, devoid of the traditional temporal cues associated with the medium, in a bid to create a new perception of reality. Through the interplay of colour and the rhythm of the arrangement, the surface of the works create the illusion of visual movement, of a vibration on the canvas.  The ‘New Dynamic Structure’, pivots on three key elements: movement, space and time. “When we talk about painting we are talking about colour” the artist would state while explaining the process his work was undergoing at the time. With this association, Mack wanted to achieve a state of “pure, perpetually creative movement”, which was not limited to a singular medium or technique. 

Between the late 1950s and early 1960s, the artist produced a series of works on paper, mainly devoted to exploring the dialogue between shadow and light. The rhythmical modulation and variations on the theme of the grid, as well as the energy produced by the parallel lines, are clearly visible in these works and are irrevocably connected to the artist’s works on canvas.

Untitled (à la Seurat), 1959, embodies the result of Mack’s exploration into creating reliefs from pieces of embossed aluminium. These reliefs were subsequently used by the artist as a matrix for his drawings, through the use of frottage, a technique that involves taking a rubbing of a surface and thus replicating or abstracting the texture. In the specific case of Untitled (à la Seurat), Mack presents a frottage of white wax on black paper, obtained by rubbing an embossed aluminium plate. By moving away from more traditional art practices Mack could create a new artistic language, which led to the discovery of pictorial spaces that were full of energy, where vibrations could be visually contained and revealed.

Schwarze Chromatik is a series of works on paper produced in the early 1960s, which reflects the artist’s study of colour by revealing its presence, or lack thereof, through a monochrome palette. In the series, Mack created works with “graphical energy fields”, as the frottage technique allowed him to confer to the paper a specific, unique texture. As a result, the viewer perceives a vibrant modulation and a powerful dialogue between dark and light tones. This phenomenon appears in the work Schwarze Chromatik, 1960, titled after the series. In this frottage on paper, Mack employs a black wax crayon to register rhythmic variations of the same pattern. In the sections where Mack applied more pressure, the grid pattern appears more coloured, almost blurred and less defined. In other sections, where Mack applied less pressure, the grid emerges through the surface more precisely, and with more rigorous definition. It is this carousel of alternated patterns that creates an almost hypnotic effect on the viewer.