Anton Franz Höger

BALANCE

January 17 – February 05, 2017

Ring Gallery

"The Home of the Croatian Association of Artists had the honour to present the work of the famous German artist, painter Anton Franz Höger.

Formal opening of the exhibition BALANCE was held on January 17, 2017, and the exhibition was open until February 5, 2017.

The exhibition gave an overview of Höger’s work from 2003 onwards, which includes highly valued works of art that have already been exhibited in prestigious galleries in Montreal, New York, Munich, Nuremberg and other cities.

This surprise for the local audience has been selected and curated by Željko Marciuš, and the exhibition is a result of cooperation between the Croatian Association of Artists and Henry Stag Art Management Production Company.

It was set in the Ring Gallery, the largest gallery of the Croatian Association of Artists, which stretches over 700 m2 and thus provides enough space for more than 40 works created by this extraordinary artist."

Mundus - (German Based Magazine)

2/2013

Myth and Reality

On the visual language of Anton Franz Höger

Dr. WERNER FASSRAINER (Ludwig-Maximilian University-Munich)

"Stories of times long past are enormously popular. They reach all classes of society and may be transformed into myths through the original forms of communication, such as literature, drama, performance, music and painting, and in our time in particular through the media in the form of television, film and the internet. The artist Anton Höger, however, is no painter of myths. For him, myth is a stylistic device, a bridge, which he offers the viewer of his works as an initial approach to his art. Höger is not someone who reissues or even interprets a tradition; he is a modern artist whose works focus on the modern age, in other words the here and now. This demands of the viewer of his pictures a readiness to make the leap from the myths depicted into the present day.

But first of all let us look back: the Greek poet Homer, possibly the greatest of all creators of myths, was subjected to violent criticism even in ancient times, for example from Xenophanes, who regards myth as belonging to the realm of fiction: “Praise the man who when he has taken drink brings noble deeds to light, as memory and a striving for virtue bring to him. He deals neither with the battles of Titans nor Giants nor Centaurs, fictions of old, nor furious conflicts – for there is no use in these. But it is good to always hold the Gods in high regard.” Plato’s critique of myth in his famous Phaedo dialogue regards myth as being the same as poetry, in that it does not produce any descriptions of reality. Instead of arguing rationally, myth invents stories; indeed, the Latin word fabula is the equivalent of the Greek word mythos. Thus, in antiquity mythos was the opposite of historia (the recording of history). Histôr is the person who has observed something. An eyewitness! The latter, however, can be mistaken – can become the victim of deception. Nevertheless, the eyewitness is a historian and is distinct from the narrator of myths. The historian is bound to relate what really happened. Anton Höger now goes one step further. He contrasts myth with reality – especially the reality of the here and now. This difficult and controversial concept is one of Höger’s prime concerns. By examining some of his central works of the past years we can study the way in which he implements it in his artistic work."