Never-before-seen juxtaposition: what connects Goehte's color theory with the Light Art by ZERO artist Heinz Mack?

“Colors are the deeds … of light.” This quote from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Theory of Colors supplies the title for a special, large exhibition at the Goethe Museum in Dusseldorf, as well as for the companion catalogue. The show juxtaposes Goethe’s (1749–1832) world of ideas and the work by the Light artist and co-founder of the ZERO group Heinz Mack (*1931, Lollar, Germany). Yet, what is it that connects the classical author to the avant-garde artist?

Surprising parallels emerge, manifesting in the universality of the two artists’ interests and their orientation toward the future. Mack’s enthusiasm for the structures of organic and inorganic life encounters Goethe’s ideas on morphology, the theory of the formation and transmutation of organic bodies. And paintings inspired by the Far East are affirmed by Goethe’s insight, “The Orient and the Occident can no longer be separated.” Never-before- exhibited works by Mack meet rare Goethe exponents from the Dusseldorf museum, as well as loans from Weimar, Dresden, and Vienna.