Mary Heilmann, good vibrations

Der von Peter Willberg gestaltete Katalog mit zahlreichen Farbtafeln ihrer Bilder, Keramiken und Möbel von den 1960er Jahren bis heute ist die erste klassische Monografie zu Leben und Werk Mary Heilmanns. Mary Heilmann is a typical example of a leading American artist who is not a household name outside the art world. The pioneering painter, famous mainly in artistic circles, has been injecting abstraction with elements from popular culture and craft traditions since the seventies. Heilmann’s straightforward, seemingly nonchalant approach to painting belies an astute and witty dialogue with all sorts of art historical preconceptions; an attitude that now serves as a shining example for artists all over the world – both young and old. The huge critical interest in catalogues of Heilmann’s work and the corresponding long queues of people waiting to hear her public lectures speak volumes. Since the 1970s, Mary Heilmann has also used ceramics to make objects and pictures, and she also integrates ceramic surfaces into her paintings. This mix of techniques – glazed clay and oil painting, with their different surface structures, colour qualities and feelings of depth – enables her to achieve a physical spatialisation of the two-dimensional picture. When her round ceramic forms are presented directly on the wall, the latter transforms into the picture carrier.