Lot 302 D

“After the devastation of the Second World War and the atrocities of the Nazi regime, Italy was a place for the artists of Horst Antes’ generation where a connection with the past could be made and ultimately an artistic fresh start was possible. Here, in Florence and Rome, Horst Antes came into contact with beautiful, conciliatory nature and in challenging and immediate encounters with the great painters of the time – with a new order, a directness and a harmony of form and colour, which had until then not been found in his work. The luminosity of the Tuscan and Roman light became of particular importance, with its clarity and special effect on colour which appeared pure and almost without nuance to the artist. And so, Ante ‘discovered’ the contour: His figures in Italy assume that position in which the falling light can best highlight their individual characteristics and their form-defining contours: in profile. The painter recalls the protracted, intense period of work which led the way to discovering a new type of representation and which helped him to ‘give birth’ or ‘knead’ his ‘trademark’, the cephalopod: “The Tuscan landscape and its light and the light of Rome were the most important impressions. For a long time, I was very unsure in the light of Florence. I kneaded the colours like dough and tried to capture something of this garden. I swung like a butterfly. Each colour remained visible; I did many watercolours and made little progress with the figure. After nine months, I found the form. They were blue figures with strongly emphasised outlines, then came the figures in profile. [...] The light-dark contrasts intensified in the light.” ” (Francesca Talpo, Horst Antes in Italien, in: Figur Wolkenfänger, Horst Antes und der malerische Aufbruch in den 1960er Jahren, exhib.cat. Sprengel Museum Hannover 2002, p.153f.)