Herbert Zangs (1924-2003)

Herbert Zangs (1924-2003)

Grat-Faltung, circa 1953

Signed lower right

an iron wire on cardboard relief

58x95 cm

Available. We ship worldwide.

Price range EUR 19,000 - 24,000

Herbert Zangs was a German artist best known for his handmade monochromatic works, which reflected his commitment to an improvised and informal artistic process. Born on March 27, 1924, in Krefeld, Germany, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf from 1945 to 1950, starting just months after the end of World War II. During this time, he befriended Joseph Beuys and became acquainted with Günther Grass.

The post-war climate greatly influenced Zangs’ aesthetic, exemplified in his Verweißungen series—collages and paintings entirely covered in ash-white paint that evoke the rubble of war. Notable works from this series include Rechenstück (1978), a cardboard collage with tic-tac-toe shapes, and Knüpfung (1958), a pillowcase knotted around rows of buttons.

Zangs developed a reputation as an “enfant terrible” of the German art world, much like his friend Beuys, and became associated with the Art Informel movement, rejecting geometric abstraction for a more intuitive approach to art-making. His specialties included collages and reliefs, such as the world-famous Verweißungen and works created with windscreen wipers (Scheibenwischer). Alongside his abstract works, he also produced expressionistic-figurative paintings.

In the 1950s, Zangs began extensive travels across Europe, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Russia, Japan, and the USA, which inspired numerous paintings and watercolors known as Reisebilder. Starting in the mid-1960s, he frequently visited Paris. In 1975, he participated in Documenta 6 in Kassel, with works now housed in the Museum Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin.

Herbert Zangs passed away on March 26, 2003, in Krefeld, Germany.

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