(Krefeld 1924–2003)
Folding (Faltung), signed, dated Zangs 53, white paint on folded cardboard, 67.5 x 43.7 cm, framed

Photo certificate:
Emmy de Martelaere, Paris 23 March 2016, certificate no. 17–03–496.
The work is registered in the archive with no. 2371 and will be included in the supplement to the Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings by Herbert Zangs, by Emmy de Martelaere.

Provenance:
Private Collection, France since the 1970s - whence acquired by the present owner
Private Collection, Germany

“This art work is distinctive for the work of Herbert Zangs. It’s part of the series of Foldings he began in 1953. The use of cardboard is very frequent in this series of foldings. The process of whitening has been initiated by Zangs in 1952.” (Emmy de Martelaere)

From 1953 onwards, Herbert Zangs developed something entirely new with his structures made from paper, paperboard and carton.

This early dynamisation of the picture-object is an interplay of the material with the rhythmic continuing propulsion of the glance. By means of material elevations and deepenings, he made the frontal image concrete and objectified it: the rhythmic aspects lead the gaze of the viewer, the image is permeated by movement. The oppositions of the material are brought before the eyes of the viewer as vital, dramatic or also as a rapid reenactment of the depiction of form. The unification of creative and receptive action fills the image with overwhelming energy, with subtlety and musicality, which it simultaneously preserves and creates.
“With my screen, grid or gauze pictures, I made the screen by creasing, folding together, or breaking, as far as the nature of the material allowed. For I can’t fold a carton and I can’t break tissue paper (...). The ‘grid pictures’ are basically ‘transparent whitenings’ (Transparentverweißungen). Grids lead to the alienation of people. (...) Grids prevent the spirit and thought processes from getting going. A grid is like a fence that creates a barrier on the path to new progress.“ (1) Nevertheless, it suggests that the regularity is broken up, and that irregularity overlays, outwits, conquers regularity, and at the same time defeats it.

(1) Herbert Zangs, in: Thomas Weber, Plus Minus Leben, Düsseldorf 1997, p. 176