Unser Lehm ist der Kunz geweint Collection Hajo und Angelika Antpöhler   23.02. – 02.06.2019

“Unser Lehm ist der Kunz geweint“: Collection Hajo and Angelika Antpöhler

Hajo Antpöhler and his wife Angelika have been collecting art since 1957. The couple assembled over 1,000 works on paper and donated them to the Kunsthalle Bremen in the Spring of 2010. After the death of her husband in 2011, Angelika Antpöhler gave a further 48 paintings and sculptures to the Kunsthalle.

According to Hajo Antpöhler, the collection focuses on Art Informel, the artist groups ZERO and CoBrA as well as Minimalist and Pop Art works. Further to this a series of sculptors’ drawings features prominently. In Antpöhler’s opinion, his collection was his own museum since he was not only a collector, but also an artist, independent curator and educator.
Visualizing words were a major focus of his own form of artistic expression. These works captivate viewers with their at times ironic and at times melancholic wit. As he wrote on one of his concrete lyric works on graph paper: “Unser Lehm (Leben) ist der Kunz (Kunst) geweint (geweiht)”, a typically humorous and untranslatable play on spoken language, declaring the couples dedication of their lives to art.

 

(Fig.: Gernot Bubenik, Naturgeschichte, 1966, Kunsthalle Bremen - Der Kunstverein in Bremen, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2018)