Sommerbild, 1961

With his Kopffüssler (head and feet figures), Horst Antes is certainly known to a wide audience. One of his sculptural works even graces the forecourt of the ZDF broadcasting centre in the city of Mainz close to Wiesbaden. Antes has been known for his Kopffüßler since 1962; they constitute a large part of his œuvre and focus on the human being, especially the head as part of the body. As such, the artist who was born in Heppenheim in 1936 is considered a major representative of the New Figuration. The Reinhard Ernst collection includes one of his early works, the Sommerbild (summer picture) from 1961. It represents his brief abstract period, in which Antes gradually began to develop the Kopffüßler. The painting shows a completely open pictorial space, in which shapes and colours float. There does not appear to be any kind of system in which the components would fit here. At that time, Horst Antes’ shapes were looking for their content, which they would ultimately find in the New Figuration and the developed artistic figure of the Kopffüßler.

Horst Antes studied painting under HAP Grieshaber at the Karlsruhe Academy from 1957 to 1959. In the 1960s, he spent a lot of time in Italy, including the Villa Romana in Florence in 1962 and the Villa Massimo in Rome in 1963. In 1967, he accepted a teaching assignment at the Karlsruhe Art Academy and was a visiting professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin in 1968. Antes has repeatedly taken part in the Documenta in Kassel and the prestigious Biennale of Venice (1966) and São Paulo (1991). From 1984 to 2000, Antes was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe. He lives and works in Sicellino, Italy and Karlsruhe.