Modern Art

In his ‘Sturm und Drang’ years, Horst Antes was very close friends with the writer, essayist and feuilletonist Dieter Hoffmann, who was born in Dresden and moved to West Germany in the 1950s. Hoffmann, who was in close, friendly contact with the Dresden painter aristocracy Lachnit, Jüchser, Glöckner, Hassebrauk - later joined by Leipzig's Volker Stelzmann - often acted as a mediator between literature and the visual arts with his journalistic work.

Hoffmann married in 1964, the same year his son Urs was born, and Antes gave the sculpture to the couple as a gift for their wedding and the birth of their son.

As was the alternative impetus at the time, the artist made the figure solely from loose pieces of found wood and a metal door hinge. The two-part work, created in Switzerland, was constructed with dowels for easy assembly. ‘Four eyes for Urs‘ is an absolute solitaire within Horst Antes’ oeuvre: never again, neither before nor since, has the artist created a unique sculptural piece out of wood. .