Anton Henning - Oase

Anton Henning was born in Berlin in 1964 and made a name for himself in the 1990s, primarily as a painter. In numerous international exhibitions of the subsequent voluminous interpretations of his paintings and sculptures, he repeatedly proved his ability to lead observers into a painting-space amounting to a Gesamtkunstwerk, whose apparent harmony test our mainstream-formed sense of aesthetics as much as the underlying dissonances. For all the humor, lack of respect for the accomplishments of art history as well as the “White Cube” itself, a creative Footprint becomes apparent that seduces the observer with various media, that both snubs and conquers her with his radical tenderness, dulcet offbeat and a layered wit, but also begs the question: Is Anton Henning a calculating conceptualist or a sentimentalist, simply following his intuition, or neither – Henning sees himself as a Romantic.

The installation OASE, shown at the Georg-Kolbe-Museum, is based on the interpretation of the painting “Interieur No.342” of 2006, as a vivid wool carpet of 9 x 6 meters. Abstract patterns are the foundation and grid for pedestals of varying height. They support sculptures made from a range od materials, or the pedestal itself represents a sculpture, with all objects relating to each other. Landscapes, portraits and nudes as well as echoes of recent art history are subversively and ironically set in a dialog. Sculpture seems fully devoted to painting, similar to the preoccupation with plasticity, volume, sculpture and its spatial image visible in Anton Henning’s paintings.

The Georg-Kolbe-Museum also presents a selection of drawings. The represent a distinct group of works in Anton Henning’s oeuvre with an impressive narrative density.

In the late 1980s, Anton Henning lived first in London and then in New York, and from the mid-1990s onwards he had his first solo exhibitions both in Germany and abroad. Institutional projects soon followed. These included the Kasseler Kunstverein (1998), the Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig (1999), the Kunstmuseum Luzern (2003) and the Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main (2005). Anton Henning achieved greater recognition in 2004 with the artistic decoration of the restaurant in the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck and the associated exhibition (2007). In 2009, the artist was shown in a major double exhibition at the Kunsthalle Mannheim and the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum in Ludwigshafen.
Anton Henning lives and works in Manker near Berlin.

The exhibition project is a cooperation with De Pont – museum voor hedendaagse kunst from Tilburg (NL).

At the same time as the exhibition at the Georg-Kolbe-Museum, a solo exhibition by the artist will be on show at the Zehlendorfer Haus am Waldsee (Gegengift, September 20 – November 29, opening: September 19, 2009).
www.hausamwaldsee.de