Early Years

Anton Prinner, born Prinner Anna (Budapest, 1902 – Paris, 1983) studied at the Fine Arts School in Budapest.  After arriving in Paris in 1927, she created a male persona and maintained an androgynous identity for the rest of her life.  Mondrian's neo-plasticism and Russian constructivism influenced her early work. She studied at the free school of the Grande Chaumière, became friends with Arpad Szenes, and became a prominent figure in the constructivist movement.

In 1932 she studied engraving at the studio of British surrealist painter and printmaker Stanley William Hayter and invented a new process called papyrogravure. From 1937 Prinner turned to figurative sculpture, notably with the plaster, Double Personality. Her interest in the occult, mysticism, and transmutation influenced her work. Between 1947 and 1949 she illustrated sixty-six tablets of the Egyptian Book of the Dead and later illustrated a work on Tarot. 

Her Relation to the Avant-garde

Prinner was well connected with the avant-garde in Paris. Jeanne Bucher and Maria Elena Vieira da Silva frequently visited her studio in Montparnasse at rue Belloni (now rue d'Arsonval). In the early 1940s she became friends with Picasso, who introduced her as "the small man who makes large statues." Her other friends included André Breton, Jacques Prévert, Pierre Loeb, and Jean Paulhan. From 1950 until 1965, she collaborated with the Atelier du Tapis Vert. 

She returned to Paris in 1965 and exhibited at the Galerie Yvonne Lambert, and in 1968 at the Galerie Arnad Zerbib. In 1979 the Anton Prinner Friends' Association was created. A retrospective exhibition was held at the Musée de l'Abbaye Sainte-Croix, Sables d'Olonne in 2006.

Artworks of Anton Prinner are available at the kálmán Makláry Fine Arts.

Solo Exhibitions:

2007 - Ernst Museum, Budapest

1994 - Galerie Meyer-Bugel, 

1976 - Librairie du Pot d’Etain, Pont Audemer

1974 - Librairie Pluriel, Paris 

1971 - Galerie Charley Chevallier, Paris

1968 - Galerie Zerbib, Paris

1965 – Exhibition of his work at Galerie constructivist Yvon Lambert, Paris

1962 – Exhibition at the Gallery Katia Granoff

1948 – Second show at the Pierre Gallery

1945 – Exhibition at Galerie Drouin

1945 – Exhibition at Gallery Pierre

1942 – Exhibition at Jeanne Bucher

1930 – Exhibition at the Galerie Pierre Loeb

Group Exhibitions:

1996 - László Károly Collection, Műcsarnok – Fővárosi Képtár, Budapest.

1984 - L’Avant-garde en Hongrie 1910-1930, Galerie Franka Berndt

1978 - Hungarian Constructivist Tendencies, Utrecht

1970 - Artists of the 20th Century with Hungarian origins abroad, Műcsarnok, Budapest

1958 - Sculpture Française, Musée Rodin, 

1945 - Salon des Indépendants, Sculpture d’Aujourd’hui, Galerie Drouin

Collections:

V&A London

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1036088/metamorphose-print-prinner-anton/

Museu Colecao Berardo

http://en.museuberardo.pt/collection/artists/

Stedelijk Museum

http://www.stedelijk.nl/kunstwerk/16187-beeld-van-anton-prinner

Dallas Museum of Art

https://collections.dma.org/artwork/5032294