Horst ANTES

Horst Antes – Biography, Lithographs and Original Prints

Horst Antes was born on 28 October 1936 in Heppenheim, in the German state of Hesse. A painter, printmaker and sculptor trained under HAP Grieshaber at the Karlsruhe Academy, he is best known for the ‘Kopffüßler’, or ‘head-footer’: a figure with no torso, its head resting directly on its legs, which made him one of the founders of German New Figuration in the early 1960s. He took part in three documenta exhibitions in Kassel, won the UNESCO Prize at the 1966 Venice Biennale and the Grand Prize of the São Paulo Bienal in 1991, and showed regularly in London in the late 1960s and 1970s. Alongside his painting he produced a large body of colour lithographs, etchings and artist’s books.

At present Le Coin des Arts holds a single work by Antes, and we describe it plainly: his poster for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games (Olympische Spiele München 1972), published by Edition Olympia 1972 GmbH in the celebrated series of artists’ posters. Like the rest of the series, it is printed in offset, with the signature reproduced as part of the image, so it is a fine period piece rather than an original print. We follow Antes’s work closely and offer his signed original prints whenever good impressions become available; use the ‘follow the artist’ button to be told first.

Student of Grieshaber: Heppenheim and Karlsruhe

Antes studied painting from 1957 to 1959 at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe, in the class of HAP Grieshaber, the master of the modern German woodcut. His early canvases sit between Art Informel, the dominant abstract idiom of the day, and the human figure, with Willem de Kooning as an important example. Prizes came quickly: the art prize of the city of Hanover and the Pankofer Prize in Baden-Baden in 1959, a grant from the Kulturkreis of German industry in 1960, and in 1961 the ‘junger westen’ prize in Recklinghausen and an artists’ prize at the second Paris Biennale for young artists.

The ‘Head-Footer’ and the Italian Years

In 1962 the Villa Romana prize gave him nine months in Florence, where he made his first etchings; in 1963 a fellowship at the Villa Massimo took him to Rome for another nine. During these years the Kopffüßler took its definitive shape: frontal, neckless, almost without chest or belly. The American critic Donald Kuspit has read it as a deliberate counter-image to the heroic ‘realist’ body of Nazi art. Antes began making sculpture in 1963, and German museums bought early, among them the Städel in Frankfurt (Blaue Figur, 1962) and the Sprengel Museum in Hanover (Grüne Figur, 1963). He showed at documenta III in 1964, and two years later received the UNESCO Prize at the XXXIII Venice Biennale.

London, Kassel and a Professorship

Britain discovered Antes through Gimpel Fils, the London gallery that gave him solo exhibitions in 1967, 1970, 1973 and 1976; its Swiss partner Gimpel & Hanover showed him in Zürich. The British connection also appears in his books: Für Billy und Alan Davie, a small volume of photolithographed rubber-stamp designs published by Cavallino in Venice in 1973, is dedicated to the Scottish painter Alan Davie. Meanwhile Antes taught at Karlsruhe as professor from 1967 to 1973, with a year as visiting professor in Berlin (1967-68), returned to Kassel for documenta 4 (1968) and documenta 6 (1977), and won the Marzotto painting prize in 1968. A keen collector, he assembled a study collection of Pueblo katsina figures, whose frontal forms partly inspired the head-footer; it was catalogued in 1980 and toured Europe. Public commissions followed: ten head-footers for the Technical University of Munich at Garching (1977) and the Platz der Köpfe in Corten steel at the ZDF broadcasting centre (1983).

Houses, Votives and Late Recognition

In 1984 the Guggenheim Museum in New York showed his Votives, and Antes resumed his Karlsruhe professorship until 2000. From 1987 the figure gave way to windows and houses: plain house silhouettes, first in greys and blacks, painted with sawdust mixed into the colour. The same year he issued Figur 1000, a head-footer in Corten steel in a numbered edition of 1,000 (Edition Volker Huber). Honours followed: the Federal Cross of Merit (1989), the Grand Prize of the XXI São Paulo Bienal and the Hessian Culture Prize (1991), a retrospective at the Haus der Kunst in Munich (1993), Antes. Malerei 1958-2010 at the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2013), and Ich bin das Haus at Meyer Riegger, Berlin (2025). He divides his time between Karlsruhe, Berlin and Castellina in Chianti.

The Printmaker: Lithographs, Etchings and Books

Lithography is the backbone of Antes’s printed work. Large colour sheets set the head-footer against flat, saturated grounds: Figure with Palm (1966, edition of 150, now at MoMA) or Figur Beautiful (1970-71), issued in 999 impressions by Edition 999 in Zürich. He has also worked in intaglio since 1962. The book Radierungen (1966), set to poems by Cesare Pavese, contains 21 etchings printed by Willy Steinert in Weingarten and published by Galerie Stangl, Munich. Signed offsets (Offsets, 1966, edition of 30), screenprints and woodcuts complete the picture.

Two catalogues raisonnés are standard. Bernd Lutze’s Horst Antes. Lithographien (1976) covers lithographs together with offsets, screenprints and woodcuts, and is cited as ‘Lutze’ plus a number (Figur Beautiful is Lutze 648). Günther Gercken’s Werkverzeichnis der Radierungen, Horst Antes 1962-1966 (Galerie Stangl, 1968) records the early etchings. In Germany, the Kupferstich-Kabinett in Dresden (1985) and the Kunsthalle Bremen (2022) have devoted print exhibitions to him.

Collecting Horst Antes: A Buyer’s Guide

Poster or print? This is the key question with Munich 1972. Edition Olympia issued Antes’s design as an original lithograph (1970) on BFK Rives, printed by Matthieu AG in Zürich, signed and numbered in an edition of 200 with artist’s proofs in Roman numerals; as an offset poster of about 101 × 64 cm with a printed signature; and as open-edition ‘Reproduktions-Plakate’, marked as such at lower left. Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales holds an impression of the poster. Only the first is an original print.

Catalogue reference. Ask for the Lutze number on lithographs and screenprints up to 1976, and the Gercken number on etchings of 1962-66.

Edition size. Editions range widely: 30, 150, 200 for the 1975 Swiss Society of Fine Arts portfolio sheet (Lutze 629), 999 for Figur Beautiful. See the printing.

Signature. Edition impressions are signed and numbered in pencil. Supplement prints may not be: Kopf (1976), issued in 1,500 copies with Lutze’s catalogue, carries only a number on the verso. See the signature.

Condition. Flat colour fields show every scuff, mount stain and toned margin; choose conservation framing.

Provenance. Labels from Gimpel Fils, Galerie Stangl or Lefebre, or a dedication from the artist, add confidence. Our guarantees are set out on the authenticity page.

We show Antes alongside fellow German artists Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Bernhard Heiliger and Otmar Alt, and two other contributors to the Munich 1972 series, Josef Albers and Marino Marini. Explore contemporary art, our posters and our engravings and lithographs.

Sources and further reading

Bernd Lutze, Horst Antes. Lithographien, 1976 · Günther Gercken, Werkverzeichnis der Radierungen, Horst Antes 1962-1966, Galerie Stangl, Munich, 1968 · Donald Kuspit and Volker Huber, Horst Antes, Hatje Cantz, 2006 · Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, Munich 1972 poster · Meyer Riegger – Horst Antes CV · Martin-Gropius-Bau – Antes. Malerei 1958-2010 · Toledo Museum of Art – Für Billy und Alan Davie