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Imagine a big, stylish lounge with warm-hued walls covered with large-scale paintings, pedestals with sculptures,
sleek armchairs and sofas. I could have been talking about
any elegant living room, but this is actually the work of
the German artist Anton Henning. Discovering his installations, for which much thanks goes to a large exhibition
at Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall, I became fascinated
with the spaces he creates and how the viewer is invited
to enter and observe the installation from within. Here,
interiors do not just frame or host the artworks, but form
a large part of it. The German term Gesamtskunstwerk
meaning a total work of art has hardly seemed more
relevant. The Anton Henning universe comes in a certain palette of colours; luscious, organic shapes in warm

ANTON HENNING
Loving the living room
INTERVIEW BY HELENA NILSSON STRNGBERG
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ACHIM HATZIUS

shades is a recurrent theme and his work is full of ironic

references to the masters of modernism like Duchamp and
Picasso. Another frequent theme is his pin-ups: playfully
voyeuristic nude paintings that are unafraid to challenge
what is considered good taste.
After several years of living and working in London and
New York, Anton Henning decided to move back to his
native Germany in the early 90s and took over an old
community farm near Berlin in the former East German
countryside. Together with his wife and three children,
he has now grown into the once almost overwhelmingly
large space. During our conversations, I got to follow
Anton through the shady streets of New York in the 80s,
unintentional squatting in London and the fall of the Berlin Wall, while eventually learning about the best way to
grow your own pumpkins.

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Anton, you seem to have lived a bit all over
the place and settled down in this small village
of Manker 20 years ago. Are you originally
from Berlin?
Yes, indeed. Im a Berliner, just like my parents, my grandparents and some of my great
grandparents. My mothers father was born
in Moabit, his mother was a widow who had
a pub on the corner of Birkenstrasse and my
grandfather was raised in the bar. Later, when
he was old enough and could afford it, he
bought the place and the corner pub is still
standing on Birkenstrasse today. My fathers
father came from Pommern, ran off as a young
man to become a sailor, but later started his
own pharmaceutical company. In search of
something equivalent to Viagra, he accidently
invented an explosive.
And what about your parents?
My father wanted to become a lawyer, but after
the Second World War the family business was
in such bad shape that he had to rescue the
company in the late 50s. My mother used to be
a stewardess in one of the first Lufthansa crews
to go to Rio de Janeiro, Dhaka, and all those
places, in the Super Constellation aircraft. It
was very glamourous to be a stewardess at that
time. She is still best friends with her former
colleagues.
Were you into art and painting already as a
child?
I dont think I was exceptionally creative as a
child; it was just very practical to paint and give
paintings away for birthdays and Christmas. I
got particularly interested in art when I was
about 16 years old, having seen an exhibition
of post-war American painting. I especially
liked Rauschenbergs combine paintings of the
60s and De Koonings Abstract Expressionism.
Strangely enough, I never cared much for Jackson Pollocks drip-paintings. I found them too
simple, tricky and obvious.
I heard you got expelled from your art school
in Karlsruhe. Why, were you a rebel?
I didnt really see myself as a rebel. I just
found it difficult to adapt to the conformity of
art school. I didnt really like school in general.
After graduating I went to Spain straight to
learn Spanish, and I really loved being away.
When I left Karlsruhe, I decided to go to London
to work on my paintings. Even though there
wasnt much squatting going on in London,

I was actually squatting in a house there, although without knowing it.

Really, how did that happen?
I was incredibly nave. I paid rent to a crook
who said he was the owner of the home. One
day the real owner stood in my home and said:
Who are you and what are you doing here? I
was just as shocked, wondering what he was
doing in my space.
Where did this unintentional squatting take
place?
In the East End, near the Brick Lane market.
If you come from Bethnal Green, pass the bagel shops, theres this little road called Bacon
Street. It was a really strange building; it didnt
even have a proper door. I had to climb over
a fence and a door to get into what I thought
was my space. And I couldnt really lock the
door to my home, so I had to use wooden bars
instead (laughs).
What a story!
I must say I was quite scared. And I didnt have
a phone, obviously, since this was before mobile phones.
What was the area like back then?
It was really quite filthy, but I loved it. Coming from a sort of moderate bourgeois Berlin
background, this fulfilled all my stereotypes of
city life (laughs). It wasnt chic at all. The only
artists I know who were living there back then
were Gilbert and George, and I think they still
do. But I never met them; I was a kid and they
were already famous artists.
That London place sounds quite different to
your home in Manker. Can you tell me something about the way you live today?
This house used to be a farm house. Its very
typical for the area to have four buildings like
we do here; the living house near the road,
two stables on the sides and the big barn in the
back. But since this was East Germany, the last
time it was used as a proper farm was in the
1940s. When this became Soviet occupied territory, they expropriated the farmers, put them
in blue working suits on a Russian tractor and
told them that from now on they had to work
for the Kolkhoz. Nobody maintained the place
very well, so when I took over a little more
than 20 years ago it was quite run down. It
took almost four years to fix it, and Ive lived

apartamento - Anton Henning

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135
here since then. My family and I really enjoy
it here because of all the space, which in the
beginning felt much like a pair of shoes that
was too big. Now they are almost custom-fit.
Did you do all the work on the house yourself?
No, because then I would still be doing it. I had
a lot of help, since it is quite large. I lived in
New York before and I loved living there, but I
had enough of city life. I decided to come here
because I wanted to have more space and be
closer to nature.
Why did you grow tired of New York, really?

Above: The Manker Melody Makers Lounge, 1999, installation view. Courtesy of Galerie fr zeitgenssische Kunst, Leipzig,
photographer: Jrg von Bruchhausen, Berlin. Below: Interieur No. 510, 2012. Courtesy of Collection of Magasin 3 Konsthall, Stockholm, photographer: Christian Saltas. Previous page: Interieur No. 227, 2004. Courtesy of private collection, France,
photographer: Jrg von Bruchhausen, Berlin.

apartamento - Anton Henning

I mean, it sounds arrogant to say youve grown

tired of New York. Its one of the most exciting cities in the world, especially for a young
person. You meet a lot of people, you see a
lot, the city just fills you up with energy and
inspiration. I lived there for more or less five
years, loving the pace, speed and the beat of
the city. I sold my paintings and felt completely
independent, with the illusion that this would
be normal. At that time I had a gallery show in
the city and a museum exhibition at the University of Oklahoma. While I was preparing these
exhibitions I met someone and fell in love, and
for that reason I moved to the city.
So you moved for love. Thats very classic.

Where did you live back then?

I found a loft that used to be a stable for carriage horses before there were cars. There are
lots of old stables on the West Side and my
place was in Chelsea; at that time the area
hadnt yet become very trendy. I had my place
on Tenth Avenue, between 18th and 19th
street. Back then there were only a couple of
galleries and the Dia Foundation there. Later
it became more fashionable, and today obviously all the galleries are there. But back
then it was completely different and quite interesting, because there were spooky streets
where shootings happened, next to perfectly

okay streets. I had a big space and a gallerist who sold my work, until one day he just
disappeared.
Wait, what do you mean he disappeared?
He just disappeared. I know that hes dead
now. He must have had many enemies. That
was a tough experience, because he owed me
a lot of money. And you know, the question
eventually came up if I was going to stay there,
go back, or go somewhere else. At that time
Germany was the most interesting place because so much was happening: the unification
of a split country. Every time I was in Berlin I
was always thinking that I wanted to be a part
of that interesting moment.

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136
Were you actually in Berlin when the wall fell?
Yes, I was. I remember extremely well what I
was doing that night. I was renting a very nice
building in Kreuzberg: a four-storey small factory building where two oors were mine, and
the other two I subletted to my best friends. The
house used to be a printers shop, and later it
was bought by the publishing house Nicolai Verlag, so I had to move out. Anyway, one evening
me and my friends were watching the evening
news and they said that it looked like the wall
would be be opened that night. Since the wall
was only like half a mile away, we decided to
go the part by Heinrich-Heine-Strasse. Nobody

Well, you know, this was part of the peaceful history of life! Checkpoint Charlie was an important
point of the Cold War; people were separated by
the wall. When the wall fell, those people could
come together again. Everybody was in tears;
it was a beautiful big moment. And that was all
one could feel. I couldnt look any further.

had come through yet, but we were there on top

of the roof of our car to have a better view. And
we greeted the first people that came through, it
was amazing! From there we went to Checkpoint
Charlie, where there was a huge party going on.

repeating patterns of city life and communication. It had become too predictable and my star
was fading (laughs).

Wow, that is almost unbelievable. I dont think

Ive ever met anyone who was there at the
actual wall when it came down.
It was absolutely amazing. We were expecting
the first people to come through. And we still
werent sure if what they said on the news was
just a uke or a mistake.
How did you feel when you saw all of this happen?

Was that the moment when you decided to

move back to Germany?
Then I prepared that show in New York and
decided to come back to Germany. I moved
to the East German countryside, because at
the time I had had enough of the city and the

Id like to speak a bit about your art. Several

of your installations, such as Oktagon fr Herford, are complete room installations. Some of
them remind me of a film set for or a luxurious
mobile home. How do you describe these kind
of rooms yourself?
They are sculpture, stage, screen sets and
painting in one work. I offen make paintings
of imaginary sculptures that are set up on a
plinth that I stage in a kind of interior setting.
The great architect Karl-Friedrich Schinkel was
also a painter of his architectural fantasies.

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140
What is the difference between placing your
art in an existing space and building your own
settings and furniture?
Its a more intense experience for me to create
my own space, unless the space given is interesting. The smallest installation I made was in
a box that measured a quarter of a cubic metre.
You looked at it through a spy peephole in the
door, getting the illusion that it was a big space.
I read that someone described your art as
walking into a cinemascope movie screen
where a cacophony of painted scenarios unfold, and I think that is a pretty good picture
of your work. Are you inuenced by the film

medium or even any specific cinematic works?

Thats a nice description. I like it when the artificial becomes natural and the natural becomes
artificial. I dont differentiate between abstraction and representation; everything is abstract
and everything is representational.
Is colour important to you?
Colour is absolutely fundamental! I dont really
like to use only bright and clear colours. It is
important to build up a kind of harmony between colours so that they dont kill each other.
How come you often paint self portraits?
Why do you look at yourself in the mirror? I
look at something that I think I know well from

141

the inside. But what I see of myself in the mirror

differs from other peoples perception of me;
they know much better what I look like. That is
the reason why we are interested in looking at
ourselves in photos and in moving pictures. We
only have a sense of ourselves, but no picture.
In many of your works, there is a direct reference to art historys masters such as Matisse,
Picasso or Duchamp, either in motif or title. Is
it an homage or are you being ironic?
It is an ironic homage. But they are only colleagues: great colleagues. I have a lot of respect for artists who work independently from
the mainstream, artists who mainly work for

themselves, instead of curators or the bigger

audience. They dont try to fulfill expectations
but set the standards themselves. Contemporary
artists have to be way ahead of curators. If not,
they become illustrators of curatorial concepts.
Can you tell me something about the many
nude paintings?
I guess that if you want to be a good artist, you
have to observe things well.
I dont think it makes you a voyeur to adore the
naked body of a woman. It makes you human! I
look at people for analysis and observe nature.
Where do you find inspiration?
I find inspiration almost everywhere, even for

apartamento - Anton Henning

Previous spread: Charlys Room,1996, courtesy of the artist, photographer: Anton Henning.
Above: Interieur No. 500, 2012, courtesy of the artist, photographer: Jrg von Bruchhausen, Berlin.
Below: Interieur No. 478, 2011, courtesy of the artist, Photographer: Jrg von Bruchhausen, Berlin.

apartamento - Anton Henning

145
instance in newspaper headlines if they are
funny or drastic enough.
You seem to be working very three-dimensionally most of the time. What role do sculptures
or installations play in your work?
I think in all kinds of dimensions and sometimes I dont think so much at all. There is not
really a difference in the way I think of my
installations and my own home.

Previous page: Interieur No. 447, courtesy of the artist, photographer: Anton Henning.

Do you have a favourite part of your home?

I think it is the kitchen, as I love cooking. Cooking is very direct and has a lot in common with
the way I paint. I really like to eat and luckily
my wife and my three lovely children like it too,
so we cook a lot together. I love being near
my family and I start missing them after only
half a day when Im travelling. We always take
time to eat together, even if theyre busy with
school or after-school activities. On weekends
we like to either go for long walks or go sailing, and in the winter when the lake is frozen
we go ice skating. I also do ice yachting, this
sort of winter sailing on ice. My father used to
do it too with his friends. Its like the coolest
thing you can do in the winter when there is
ice, really fascinating!
It sounds like you enjoy outdoor life.
Yes, thats what you should do when you live
in the country. Were not farmers, but we have
a green house and a vegetable garden that
supply us with a lot of vegetables. From an
economical point of view it doesnt make much
sense because it is more expensive to grow
your own things than to go to the organic
supermarket. But at least you can see how it
grows, and I think its so important that the
children know how these things work. And it
tastes so much better! As a city person it is
difficult, but I think once youre in the country
you should know.
Your home and lifestyle seem so idyllic: moving away from the city to start a new life in the
countryside, living with your family near nature. How important is Manker for your work?
Trust me, its not as idyllic as you may think
(laughs). This is the typical city-art-crowd stereotype. You cannot live anywhere in Germany
where you are closer to 20th century German
history, which as we all know is not particularly glorious, than here. What I am trying to
say is that where our home is located, people

have been living under dictatorship from 1933

until the wall came down. This leaves deep impressions on their mentality. Not everyone has
come to terms with our capitalist democracy.
They proclaim a kind of nostalgic glorification
of dictatorship of whatever kind. Here you have
the edginess of rural ignorance, post-communist revanchism and neo-Nazism. Idyllic is a
clich. I dont think my neighbours know what
kind of a art I make, but they think that Im
famous so they respect us. Mutual respect is all
you can ask for, as you cannot be friends with
everyone. And the paintings that I have inside
of me, I could paint anywhere in the world.
Do you still go into Berlin sometimes?
Yes, we visit friends, go to the movies, see exhibitions, take the children to museums. And we
love going to the opera. I enjoy city life every
once in a while, but soon I have enough. I must
say I really like it out here. This feels more like
home now. But I love Berlin, especially the old
western parts, because thats what I used to
know. Before the wall came down, West Berlin was like one big village where you would
move around a lot. But now its so big, that in
one way it has become more provincial. People
dont go from Prenzlauer Berg to Charlottenburg; it is too far! They stay in their so-called
kiez, like a village within the city. You often see
this provincial attitude in Berlin.
I absolutely agree.
Its not like London, or New York where you
commute so much. On the other hand, it makes
it human to live in Berlin, because you dont
have this feeling of rushing in and rushing out,
trying to make as much money as possible so
that you can survive or make a career. Its kind
of cosy. You live in Charlottenburg and then
youre happy in Charlottenburg, or Schneberg
or Kreuzberg or whatever.
So which is your Berlin kiez when youre in
town?
Charlottenburg. I like how there are still some
really nice old shops there that have been there
for generations. Not everything is new, you
know.

apartamento - Anton Henning