ARTISTS
Anton Henning: Masterdote/Antisinger
28 May, 2010 - 10 Jul, 2010
Masterdote/Antisinger, a major exhibition by Anton Henning, the German artist born in 1964 in Berlin, opens at Haunch of Venison this summer. Featuring more than eighty works, including painting and sculpture, furniture and drawing, video, and a site specific stained glass window, the exhibition considers Henning聮s oeuvre as a series of interrelated riddles, precariously positioned between irony and grandeur.
The title of the show, Masterdote/Antisinger, is a compelling collage of Wagner聮s opera about art and creativity, 聭Die Meistersinger von N眉rnberg聮 (聭The Mastersingers of Nuremberg聮), and 聭antidote聮, the medical term for an agent that counteracts a poison. It follows from the similarly themed Antidote and Antonym, two recent museum exhibitions which were part of a five museum series in Germany and Holland over the past twelve months.
The work itself, and the enigmatic way it is presented, reveals both the absurdist and traditional vein of Henning聮s art, from the seemingly sober to the dazzling and whimsical. Henning is anti-unconventional in his examination and use of traditional (conventional) art genres from portrait, landscape, nude and still life. He is relentlessly anti-didactic, orchestrating a dance between Modernistic and anti-Modernistic principles and railing against prevailing art world expectations, conformities, etiquettes and a fashionable, one-note, one-liner kind of irony. Henning聮s work is instead defined by its variety, its internal contradictions and its multi-layered register.
Masterdote/Antisinger is a complex exhibition that will enable multiple responses. Henning聮s pursuit of an antidote to the norm is dependent on his ability to act in opposition to himself, as if assaulting his own nature is the only way to become a Mastersinger, or, in artistic terms, an Alte Meister. To this end, Henning has invited his artist colleague Eric Hattan to intervene in the exhibition, introducing a further irony to the idea of an exhibition as a monument to a single vision.
Henning聮s art is humourous and self aware, and while nodding in reference to many other artists, he shows a joyous confidence in expression as he freely mixes and samples, paints, sculpts and performs, to create works that go against the grain of much contemporary art today.
The title of the show, Masterdote/Antisinger, is a compelling collage of Wagner聮s opera about art and creativity, 聭Die Meistersinger von N眉rnberg聮 (聭The Mastersingers of Nuremberg聮), and 聭antidote聮, the medical term for an agent that counteracts a poison. It follows from the similarly themed Antidote and Antonym, two recent museum exhibitions which were part of a five museum series in Germany and Holland over the past twelve months.
The work itself, and the enigmatic way it is presented, reveals both the absurdist and traditional vein of Henning聮s art, from the seemingly sober to the dazzling and whimsical. Henning is anti-unconventional in his examination and use of traditional (conventional) art genres from portrait, landscape, nude and still life. He is relentlessly anti-didactic, orchestrating a dance between Modernistic and anti-Modernistic principles and railing against prevailing art world expectations, conformities, etiquettes and a fashionable, one-note, one-liner kind of irony. Henning聮s work is instead defined by its variety, its internal contradictions and its multi-layered register.
Masterdote/Antisinger is a complex exhibition that will enable multiple responses. Henning聮s pursuit of an antidote to the norm is dependent on his ability to act in opposition to himself, as if assaulting his own nature is the only way to become a Mastersinger, or, in artistic terms, an Alte Meister. To this end, Henning has invited his artist colleague Eric Hattan to intervene in the exhibition, introducing a further irony to the idea of an exhibition as a monument to a single vision.
Henning聮s art is humourous and self aware, and while nodding in reference to many other artists, he shows a joyous confidence in expression as he freely mixes and samples, paints, sculpts and performs, to create works that go against the grain of much contemporary art today.
Recommended for you
19 Jun, 2019
- 30 Jun, 2026
23 Oct, 2025
- 08 Mar, 2026
Masterdote/Antisinger, a major exhibition by Anton Henning, the German artist born in 1964 in Berlin, opens at Haunch of Venison this summer. Featuring more than eighty works, including painting and sculpture, furniture and drawing, video, and a site specific stained glass window, the exhibition considers Henning聮s oeuvre as a series of interrelated riddles, precariously positioned between irony and grandeur.
The title of the show, Masterdote/Antisinger, is a compelling collage of Wagner聮s opera about art and creativity, 聭Die Meistersinger von N眉rnberg聮 (聭The Mastersingers of Nuremberg聮), and 聭antidote聮, the medical term for an agent that counteracts a poison. It follows from the similarly themed Antidote and Antonym, two recent museum exhibitions which were part of a five museum series in Germany and Holland over the past twelve months.
The work itself, and the enigmatic way it is presented, reveals both the absurdist and traditional vein of Henning聮s art, from the seemingly sober to the dazzling and whimsical. Henning is anti-unconventional in his examination and use of traditional (conventional) art genres from portrait, landscape, nude and still life. He is relentlessly anti-didactic, orchestrating a dance between Modernistic and anti-Modernistic principles and railing against prevailing art world expectations, conformities, etiquettes and a fashionable, one-note, one-liner kind of irony. Henning聮s work is instead defined by its variety, its internal contradictions and its multi-layered register.
Masterdote/Antisinger is a complex exhibition that will enable multiple responses. Henning聮s pursuit of an antidote to the norm is dependent on his ability to act in opposition to himself, as if assaulting his own nature is the only way to become a Mastersinger, or, in artistic terms, an Alte Meister. To this end, Henning has invited his artist colleague Eric Hattan to intervene in the exhibition, introducing a further irony to the idea of an exhibition as a monument to a single vision.
Henning聮s art is humourous and self aware, and while nodding in reference to many other artists, he shows a joyous confidence in expression as he freely mixes and samples, paints, sculpts and performs, to create works that go against the grain of much contemporary art today.
The title of the show, Masterdote/Antisinger, is a compelling collage of Wagner聮s opera about art and creativity, 聭Die Meistersinger von N眉rnberg聮 (聭The Mastersingers of Nuremberg聮), and 聭antidote聮, the medical term for an agent that counteracts a poison. It follows from the similarly themed Antidote and Antonym, two recent museum exhibitions which were part of a five museum series in Germany and Holland over the past twelve months.
The work itself, and the enigmatic way it is presented, reveals both the absurdist and traditional vein of Henning聮s art, from the seemingly sober to the dazzling and whimsical. Henning is anti-unconventional in his examination and use of traditional (conventional) art genres from portrait, landscape, nude and still life. He is relentlessly anti-didactic, orchestrating a dance between Modernistic and anti-Modernistic principles and railing against prevailing art world expectations, conformities, etiquettes and a fashionable, one-note, one-liner kind of irony. Henning聮s work is instead defined by its variety, its internal contradictions and its multi-layered register.
Masterdote/Antisinger is a complex exhibition that will enable multiple responses. Henning聮s pursuit of an antidote to the norm is dependent on his ability to act in opposition to himself, as if assaulting his own nature is the only way to become a Mastersinger, or, in artistic terms, an Alte Meister. To this end, Henning has invited his artist colleague Eric Hattan to intervene in the exhibition, introducing a further irony to the idea of an exhibition as a monument to a single vision.
Henning聮s art is humourous and self aware, and while nodding in reference to many other artists, he shows a joyous confidence in expression as he freely mixes and samples, paints, sculpts and performs, to create works that go against the grain of much contemporary art today.
Artists on show
Contact details
Monday - Wednesday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
6 Haunch of Venison Yard London, UK W1K 5ES
