Deutsche Bank AG - Historische Gesellschaft der Deutschen Bank e.V.

Contemporary Art at Deutsche Bank
The Concept
Contemporary art at the bank gives staff, custo-
mers and visitors an opportunity to experience art at
the workplace and encourages them to think about
its conlent 2nd form. This is why Deutsche Bank pur-
chases modern art to be displayed at its premises.
Most of the works selected are by artists and sculp-
tors from German-speaking countries, mainly young
artists born in the 1950s and '60s.
In the towers of Deutsche Bank's Central Office in
Frankfurt, 1,900 works on paper by 125 artists adorn
the corridors and conference rooms. Further works of
contemporary art can be Seen at many domestic and
foreign branches and subsidiaries.
The bank's artistic concept also includes the de-
sign of its Annual Reports, each featuring the work of
one particular artist. This year, the report contains art
by Horst Antes selected from works in the bank's
collection. Starting at the General Meeting, an exhibi-
tion of Antes' printed graphics will be on display at 30
branches.
Horst Antes
Horst Antes was born in Heppenheim on the Berg-
Strasse in 1936. From 1957 until 1959 he studied
under HAP Grieshaber at the Staatliche Akademie
der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe. He was lecturer
there from 1965 until 1967, and subsequently profes-
sor until 1973. From 1967 to 1968 he taught asvisiting
professor at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende
Künste Berlin. Antes has been professor in Karlsruhe
agüin since 1984.The artist'sfirst individual exhibition
was held in 1960 at the Cologne art gallery "Der Spie-
gel". Today, his art includes not only paintings 2nd
drawings, but also metal sculptures and numerous
graphic works. In the early '60s Antes developed a
process combining the advantages of offset printing
with the creative scope of the lithograph. Since he
spent a period at the Villa Romana in Florence in 1962
he has also devoted himself to the technique of etch-
ing. In 1989 the Sprengel Museum in Hanover
showed a selection of Horst Antes' printed graphic
works.
The artist's early works link the gestural painting of
I'art informel with the figurative style of his teacher
Grieshaber. The "Kopffüssler" (a human figure shown
upside down) that will dominate his works for many
years appears for the first time in 1960. In the
mid-sixties it is often reduced to just the head. "I load
and unload my figure symbolically, sentimentally, or-
ganically, historically", says Antes in describing the
motif, "and fiII it and empty it with allusions, gestures,
thoughts, speculations, wishes and anxieties. I make
myself a picture, I make someone as an image, part-
ner, mirror." The figures are often accompanied by a
bird, rabbit or snake. And sometimes they are shown
in interiors along with objects, such as a large pipe, a
ladder or feathers. These motifs can be traced back
to Antes' deep interest in the culture of the Hopi In-
dians in North America.
In 1982 Antes' manner of presentation changes, in-
fluenced by the Falklands war. The human figure is
now outlined with the help of a stencil. Later, the thin
gold foil sculptures, the "Votive", develop out of these
stencils.
1987 marks the beginning of theseriesof "Berliner
Bilder", using only the colours black, grey and blue.
The "house of the Navajo", which Antes discovered in
the Canyon de Chelly on a trip to the U.S.A., is a fre-
quent motif.
Horst Antes lives in Karlsruhe, Berlin and Tuscany.