Horst Janssen caused a sensation. With his art, with his lifestyle, with his statements. He worked himself out of difficult circumstances with a hunger and restlessness for life to become one of the most celebrated post-war German artists, impressing with his work as a draughtsman, author, woodcutter, graphic designer, illustrator and photographer.
(...) Continue readingHorst Janssen – Difficult childhood; early encouragement from the drawing master
Horst Janssen was born in Hamburg-Wandsbek on 14 November 1929. As the illegitimate child of the dressmaker Martha Janßen, he never met his father, the Swabian travelling salesman Karl Gottleb Bauer, and initially grew up with his grandparents before an official guardian sent him to a national political reform school in Haselünne following the death of his grandfather. There, Janssen caught the attention of the drawing master Hans Wienhausen who encouraged his artistic aptitude. After the death of his mother from tuberculosis, Janssen was taken in by his aunt, who adopted him and financed his art studies. The artist had a close relationship with his aunt and paid tribute to her in many works with the pet name ‘Tantchen’ (little aunty).
Great art in the stairwell
Horst Janssen’s studies were also not without obstacles: a serious argument with the director of the State School of Art, Professor Gustav Hasenpflug, resulted in his premature departure without graduating. The artist retaliated later, however, by stealing the director’s wife. In the economically difficult 1950s, Janssen earned a living mainly with contract work mediated by his revered teacher, Alfred Mahlau, with clients including the coloured paper manufacturer Guido Dessauer and the Reemtsma family, for whom he designed the Helle Stunde carpet. Not wanting to wait years for his first desired solo exhibition, Horst Janssen quickly organised it himself with much elan in the stairwell of his residence. Further such stairwell exhibitions attracted many collectors and eventually made his national breakthrough, bringing him the Darmstadt Art Prize and his first great show in Hannover, whilst international recognition was won by his participation in the 24th Venice Biennale in 1968 and documenta 6 in Kassel in 1977. In the period that followed, he held exhibitions in America, Asia, Russia and Europe, consolidating his reputation as an exceptional artist among international art critics.
A dazzling personality
Horst Janssen had numerous affairs with various, often married women which he processed in an extensive series of portraits and erotic depictions. The great egomaniac captured not only his respective conquests, however, but also himself in countless self-portraits. Declaring himself “the grace of God”, the artist largely dispensed of any embellishment and idealisation in these pictures and documented himself in every phase of his life with all its impairments – owed in no small part to his excessive alcohol consumption. Janssen never made a secret of this, but rather staged his dazzling artistic life with verve and chutzpah, thus raising his profile even further. He was already a legend in his lifetime, with weighty voices such as ‘Die Zeit’ praising him as a “genius”, and the director Bernd Boehm and producer Hinrich Lührs dedicating a cinematic portrait to him on his 85th birthday, which was broadcast on several stations.
Horst Janssen died on 31 August 1995 in Hamburg from a stroke.
Horst Janssen - Works that have already been sold at Kunsthaus Lempertz:
