Inspired by Herbert Zangs

German artist Herbert Zangs is best known for his post-war, experimental art practice. Born in 1924 in Krefeld, Germany, Zangs served in the army before tragically becoming a prisoner of war. Three years later at the end of World War II, Zangs decided to continue on by taking up a study placement at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf. It was at this establishment that he met Joseph Beuys and Günter Grass. This period proved to have a fundamental influence over the formation of the artistry of Zangs. 

Zangs has been grouped into the Art Informel movement, the European abstract expressionism that broke away from the traditions of figurative and geometric work in response to the trauma of World War II. The movement embraced spontaneity through anti-compositional forms and gestural abstraction. His artworks reflect this as visual  remnants of the war in the wake of the mass destruction it created. A seminal moment in his career arrived when Zangs witnessed the work of Jackson Pollock at the Museum of Modern Art in Düsseldorf. Zangs was inspired by the spontaneity of the practice itself rather than the end result. 

A series of collages and paintings covered with ashes and white paint reflects this intense period of his career. His "white works" in which he bleached found objects, whether silk, wood, metal grids or fabric are his descriptive artistic style. He is often considered a pioneer of monochromatic paintings, and his style is a precursor to the Zero movement which emphasized the beauty of the raw material of the work itself rather than that of the artist's manipulation. Zangs also plays with mathematical repetition, using plus and minus symbols throughout his work. Discover a curated collection of Herbert Zangs-inspired artwork. Discover pieces by Pierre Muckensturm and Geneviève Claisse, among others, that promote the innate beauty of the materials with which they first commence.