(Krefeld 1924–2003)
Relief painting, 1953, signed, dated Zangs 53 and again signed on the reverse, white stenciled paint on canvas, 73 x 60 cm, framed (PS)

Literature:
Emmy de Martelaere (ed.), Herbert Zangs, Catalogue Raisonné des Oeuvres Abstraites, Paris 2004, vol. I, fascicule 1, no. 93, p. 126 (ill. b/w with different dimensions: 73 x 69.5 cm)

“For me, painting means rethinking things on a sculptural level. It is where the vibrations of activity come together for everyone who relates to them and wants action. In short: painting flows out of the heart via the hands, then through the eye to nourish the brain.“
(Herbert Zangs, in: Städtisches Museum Haus Koekkoek – Cleves, exhibition catalogue, 16 May – 23 June 1982)

“I worked hardest in ’53. I only went to Greece once to paint watercolours. I was alone and very isolated, and worked like a madman for the entire year“
(Emmy de Martelaere, Herbert Zangs, tome 1, fascicule 2 1953-1954 Catalogue et Cahier d’Archives, Paris 2007, p. 104)

The monochrome white artworks that Herbert Zangs created from 1952 onwards are unique for their time. Herbert Zangs made use of a wide range of techniques to produce his collages and relief paintings, which he coated in a layer of white paint. He has dubbed these works “Verweißungen“ (“whitenings“). At the time when they were made, these works were a complete departure from what had come before, and met with such incomprehension that Zangs hardly showed them to anyone at all. The use of white bestows unity on the composition, whilst simultaneously emphasising the contours of the individual materials that he used as pictorial support, “so that everything, down to an inconspicuous mark or uneven patch, is integrated into the diverse relationships between the shapes. The structural composition of the material is in turn partly masked by the predominantly thin coat of paint, and yet does not disappear entirely.“ (Susannah Cremer-Bermbach in: Herbert Zangs Die fünfziger Jahre, exhibition catalogue, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Hohenems 2007, p. 6) Zangs’ earlier work focuses on nothing less than uniting the “image“ object with what it depicts. “This unification of creative and receptive ‘action’ fills the image with an excess of energy, but also with a tenderness and musicality the image itself simultaneously preserves and creates.“ No longer does the image depict a landscape or an abstract composition: it only represents itself.

Erich Franz in: Herbert Zangs Arbeiten aus vier Jahrzehnten, exhibition catalogue, 8 May – 20 June 1998, Düsseldorf 1998, p. 35.