Anton Henning Berlin, Germany, b. 1964
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© Maleen Daniëls -
A self-taught artist Anton Henning has become one of Germany’s most compelling artists and received notable international recognition.
b. 1964, Berlin, Germany
Lives and works in Berlin and Manker, Germany
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If we consider Art History as an ongoing conversation, Anton Henning proves himself to be a master conversationalist who speaks various different languages. Though he is perhaps best known for his paintings in which the looping lines and overlapping fragments of planes appear to break away from the two-dimensional space of the canvas, Henning works in a wide array of mediums including sculpture, drawing, film, photography and music, often freely synthesizing them into large environments.
By always trying to combine every art form in one all-embracing whole, his work could be read as a contemporary interpretation of the Gesamtkunstwerk—a total work of art— where all the various disciplines come together and enter into dialogue with one another.
When creating his work, Henning always starts explicitly with painting. He plays with all the mediums classic genres: portrait, landscape, still-life, interiors, abstract and figurative which he reinterprets informally and lards with his personal and clearly recognizable visual idiom. Like a thread running through almost all his paintings or painting objects Henning has a characteristic trade mark, an abstract, three-lobed motif that can sometimes assume whirling and fanning forms and sometimes appears to be the starting point for some of his larger arabesque motifs, which can be seen in many of his abstract paintings.
Not only does Henning dabble enthusiastically in the various painting genres, but art history also forms an inexhaustible playground which he refers to and pastiches to his hearts content. So references to the great names such as Picasso, Matisse, Duchamp and Picabia regularly crop up in his art. He moves with ease through art history and the present, shifting fluidly between abstract expression and figurative elements to create his own idiosyncratic world of representation.
Reworking traditional modes of portrayal, Anton Henning confronts the viewer with works that blur the line between high and low culture. Skilfully combining “high” and “low”, Henning exposes all cultural clichés and renounces all notions of the concept of “good taste,” creating a space where high and low could meet.
“Anton Henning’s ingenious way of playing with the present and the history of art is unique” – curator Richard Julin.
Anton Henning's works are represented in numerous international public and private collections, such as:
Museum of Contemporary Art | MOCA (Los Angeles, USA)
Centre National des Arts (Paris, France)
Gemeentemuseum (Hague, Netherlands),
The Menil Collection (Houston, USA)
De Pont Museum for Contemporary Art (Tilburg, Netherlands)
National Museum of Art (Osaka, Japan)
Arp Museum, (Remagen, Germany)
Daros Collection (Zurich, Switzerland)Essl Museum (Klosterneuburg, Austria)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art | LACMA (Los Angeles, USA)Museum für Moderne Kunst (Frankfurt am Main, Germany)
Portland Art Museum (Portland, USA)
SMAK (Gent, Belgium)
Städel Museum (Frankfurt am Main, Germany)
Hammer Museum (Los Angeles, USA)
Valencia Art Contemporaneo (Valencia, Spain)
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia)
Berlinische Galerie (Berlin, Germany)
Frieder Burda Museum (Baden-Baden, Germany) -
Works
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