Herbert Zangs
Painted everything white — brooms, telephones, newspapers, whole objects — years before it was fashionable.
Herbert Zangs was born in Krefeld in 1924, served as a Luftwaffe pilot and was a prisoner of war, and returned to study under Otto Pankok in Dusseldorf alongside Beuys. From the early 1950s he made the Verweissungen — whitenings — in which objects, newspapers, brooms, window frames and lengths of fabric are coated in white paint applied with a squeegee or a broom, work that anticipates much of what ZERO and the monochrome painters would do later in the decade. He was erratic, difficult and repeatedly out of favour, travelled restlessly, and died in Krefeld in 2003.
A German market that has strengthened considerably as the pre-history of ZERO has been reassessed, with the early 1950s Verweissungen at the top and clearly ahead of the large later output, which is uneven. Dating is the central difficulty, since Zangs worked erratically, reworked older pieces and did not keep systematic records; expert opinion and the artist's estate are the reference. The works incorporate found objects, newspaper and household paint on unstable supports, so condition and past restoration are material.
If you own a work by Herbert Zangs
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Write to info@whitebankfineart.co.uk, or start below.
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.