Heijo Hangen

Heijo Hangen (born April 29, 1927 in Bad Kreuznach ; † July 18, 2019 ) was a German constructive artist and documenta participant from 1977.

Life

Heijo Hangen was born in Bad Kreuznach in 1927. From 1947 to 1950 he studied at the Landeskunstschule in Mainz. He then received a studio grant from the State of Rhineland-Palatinate. In 1956, Hangen moved into a studio in the Künstlerhaus on the Asterstein in Koblenz. During this time he worked as an exhibition and graphic designer in Koblenz and Bonn, where he carried out numerous commissions for American educational institutions (such as USIS). With the development of his image module in the early 1960s, his artistic fame and his presence in gallery and museum exhibitions increased. In the 1970s and 1980s he was regularly represented at the major art fairs in Basel and Cologne. Hangen has now implemented his first art in architecture projects (for the Kemperhof hospital in Koblenz and the employment office in Neuwied). In 1976 Hangen received a studio grant at the Villa Massimo in Rome, and in 1977 he was invited to documenta 6 in Kassel. From 1977 to 1993 he was a lecturer at the European Academy of Fine Arts in Trier. In 2011 Hangen received the Peter C. Ruppert Prize for Concrete Art in Europe , and in 2013 the new Middle Rhine Museum in Koblenz dedicated a room to him. After the death of his wife Gisela, in 2015 he founded the "heijo + gisela hangen-stiftung" which honors fellow artists.

Artistic work

The first attempts in the field of abstraction were made as early as 1950, and from 1952 Hangen began with constructive work, which was initially still strongly committed to the Suprematist tradition. In 1962 he developed the modular form that is typical for him , which consists of dividing the square into triangular elements and which from then on enabled him to combine all of his works - regardless of the year or creative phase - directly. By using a form module that was always the same, Hangen got rid of any compositional problems in 1962. From now on he was able to concentrate fully on the effect of the colored surfaces in his work. He remained faithful to this approach and his basic module with the utmost consistency; it can be seen as his original contribution to constructive art.

Solo exhibitions (selection)

• 1954 America House, Koblenz
• 1962 gallery in the municipal theater, Remscheid
• 1967 Teufel Gallery, Koblenz
• 1968 Middle Rhine Museum , Koblenz
• 1971 From the Heydt Museum , Wuppertal
• 1976 Teufel Gallery, Cologne
• 1981 Kunstverein Kassel (with Günter Neusel )
• 1988 Hoffmann Gallery, Friedberg
• 1991 Museum for Concrete Art , Ingolstadt
• 1991 State Museum Mainz
• 1998 City Gallery Würzburg
• 2004 Hoffmann Gallery, Friedberg
• 2007 Middle Rhine Museum, Koblenz
• 2013 Geiger Gallery, Constance
• 2015 Geiger Gallery, Constance
• 2015 Düren Paper Museum
• 2017 Leopold Hoesch Museum, Düren

literature

• hang. time-shifted image combinations. Exhibition cat. museum for concrete art, ingolstadt 1991.
• hang. insights from 1950-1990. Exhibition cat. State Museum Mainz 1991.
• heijo hangen painting, workbooks 1950 - 2000

Web links

• [1] , Mittelrhein-Museum, Koblenz, accessed on June 22, 2013
• [2] , Peter C. Ruppert Prize, accessed June 22, 2013
• https://heijo-hangen.jimdo.com/ Website of the heijo + gisela hangen foundation

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Obituary notice Heijo Hangen. Retrieved August 6, 2019 .