Anton Henning: Sandpipers, Lizards &History
R360
Sandpipers, Lizards & History is Henning’s first major show in London, and presents over a dozen new paintings including abstract interiors, pin-up girls, a naked self-portrait, and a beach scene. In Sandpipers, Lizards and History the top-floor of the gallery has been transformed into a lounge.
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Sandpipers, Lizards & History is Henning’s first major show in London, and presents over a dozen new paintings including abstract interiors, pin-up girls, a naked self-portrait, and a beach scene. In Sandpipers, Lizards and History the top-floor of the gallery has been transformed into a lounge. The installation includes colourful murals, comfortable furniture, paintings and lamps. It creates the effect of an unreal world, and a sense of being inside one of Henning’s paintings. Indeed, his installations are loosely based on his earlier paintings of lounge interiors.
There is a tension in Henning’s practice between his abstract and figurative works, and this tension is often played out within a single canvas. For example, in Pin-up No.96 (Ariadne), 2005 (pictured above) a sunbathing naked woman is overpainted on an abstract patterned background that can be read as a huge beach towel. However, Henning has given the work a black horizon, introducing an element of pure abstraction, and giving the total composition a sense of the surreal. This playful combination of disparate elements and styles helps to make seemingly familiar imagery strange and arresting.