A RETROSPECTIVE OF ONE OF GERMANY'S DEFINING GRAPHIC ARTISTS, HORST JANSSEN, INSCRIBED BY HIM WITH AN ORIGINAL FULL-PAGE ARCHITECTURAL DRAWING

JANSSEN, Horst. Horst Janssen: Drawings 1979-1983; Etchings 1970-1983. Hamburg: Galerie Brockstedt, (1983). Oblong octavo, original pictorial stiff wrappers. $1150.

First edition of this catalog for a retrospective of Horst Janssen's drawing and etchings, with 176 beautiful full-page images and eight essays by Janssen, inscribed by Janssen: “For Dorothy Herza, fr HJ, 14.12.84, per Eva Maria Worthington," with a large architectural pen-and-ink drawing also by Janssen.”

Janssen is regarded as one of the major as well as most prolific German graphic artists of the 20th century. "His art exists outside the limits imposed by this century's avant-garde art movements… In looking at Horst Janssen's drawings ultimately we see ourselves exquisitely mirrored" (Reinhold Heller). "His preferred subjects for etchings include both landscapes, which he combines with plant and animal structures, and his own facial features (his self-portraits brought him early renown outside of Germany). Janssen also returns to the works of other artists again and again (Hokusai, Ensor, Klinger, Dubuffet), borrowing their motifs, either in the form of copies or by making these motifs uniquely his own by means of free variation… Nonetheless, the snare of imitation is avoided." This copy was inscribed at the request of Eva Maria Worthington, the prominent art historian and Worthington Gallery owner who focused on German Expressionism, Blauer Reiter, Bauhaus, Neue Sachlichkeit, and other important German schools. Worthington has been credited with introducing Janssen to the American public. In 1986, her gallery held a major retrospective of Janssen's work, featuring 51 pieces.

Front cover lightly rubbed. An about-fine copy.