Frank el Punto

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Frank el Punto whose real name is Frank Ludwig Schaefer (* 17th January 1909 in Mainz , † 7. February 1972 in Sant Antoni de Portmany (San Antonio de Ibiza)) was a German painter and graphic designer on since 1955 Ibiza had settled . He was known for his abstract, at the same time lyrical gesturalism in painting. He used his joking stage name "Frank el Punto" since his arrival in Ibiza. He is derived from his first name "Frank L." for "Frank Ludwig" omitting the last name "Schaefer". The artist name also refers to his lyrical, blotchy painting style and associates a closeness to the outstanding Spanish painter El Greco . Schaefer signed his works from his time in Ibiza with "El Punto".

Artistic career

Frank el Punto was born as the son of Ludwig Ignaz Schaefer, orchestral musician with the Mainz Symphony Orchestra, and Johanna Jacobine Berthes, who married Ludwig Ignaz Schäfer at the age of 63. He grew up in an artistic environment and completed his primary and secondary education in Mainz. In the late 1920s, Schaefer studied fine arts at the University of the Arts in Berlin. He also attended lectures in history and philosophy. During his studies, he worked at the Siemens factory in Berlin. Without a doubt, the move of the Bauhaus to Berlin in 1932 had an artistic influence on Schaefer. He chose to start his career as a graphic designer, but didn't stop painting during this time. In 1935 he traveled to Holland and Paris for a graphic design company. In 1937 he worked on his own account in Denmark, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. In the years between 1935 and 1940 he had his first exhibitions in Berlin galleries. His energetic figurative works from this period are very close to the Expressionism of Emil Nolde and Oskar Kokoschka .

At the beginning of the Second World War he was released from the front line because of a kidney disease and was assigned to administrative tasks in the aviation industry. The kidney disease mentioned above was to be with him throughout his life. In the midst of the turmoil of the Second World War, he fled to a remote farmhouse with his wife Ingeborg and their just-born daughter Christiane. Here he began to experiment with abstract expressionism. In 1949, after the Second World War, he went to Paris. There he got to know the leading avant-garde artists with their works. At that time he himself made wall paintings for companies as commissioned work. In post-war Germany, public funds were made available to support contemporary art. Schaefer benefited from this program and therefore went to Bremen in 1950 . Here he met Eberhard Lutze, one of the leading members of this art support group, in 1952. Lutze remained the artist's staunch supporter until the artist's death. Due to the scholarships granted, Schaefer first traveled to Yugoslavia for study purposes, and later to France and Spain.

In the summer of 1955 he visited Ibiza for the first time , where he settled in Carrer de Santa Maria 8 in Dalt Vila , the old town of Ibiza Town , the following year . This move to Ibiza marks a radical break in his artistic life. He adopts the artist name “El Punto”, with which he has signed all of his works since then. From now on his work takes on an absolutely personal style. From now on he deals exclusively with painting. In his early days in Ibiza, El Punto took up sketches of his environment, especially sketches of the streets in Dalt Vila. Until around 1958 he painted figuratively and concretely. In the late 1950s, he created lacquer pictures on wooden panels using an oriental, complex and slow-moving technique. The motifs consist of simple and at the same time dynamic lines and geometric shapes, which are realized in strong chromatic contrasts. He soon gave up this technique because it was only progressing slowly. With this technique no spontaneous artistic expressions are possible. From 1958 he then painted extremely long or portrait-format works on canvas that are close to the American, abstract expressionism of Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell . On a heavily processed background, he applied layers of earthy color and then energetic, strong strokes in various shapes. These works look like calligraphic characters, thick and in strong colors: red, blue, white and black. His last artistic working years from 1967 to 1969 were marked by his illness and a great personal crisis. Both the disease and the crisis speak from the works of that time. The gestural forms now appear broken and broken, divided into short, simple strokes and lines. These shapes organize themselves over a background with parallel lines.

Public activity and public impact

After his first exhibitions in Berlin between 1935 and 1940, El Punto exhibited several times on various occasions in Bremen between 1950 and 1954. In 1955, on the occasion of his arrival, the first exhibition in Ibiza followed in the gallery "El Corsario" and in the "Sala Vayreda" in Barcelona. From then on he presented his work throughout Europe and in various cities in Spain. He took part several times in the collective exhibitions of the abstract artists of Ibiza. In 1964 El Punto received the grand prize of the island of Ibiza at the art biennale. In 1970 he had an individual exhibition in the "Ateneo" in Madrid. In 1971 he participated in the first exhibition of international artists on the island of Ibiza. This exhibition was opened in the Art School of Ibiza and organized by the City Council and the Tourism Authority.

El Punto died early in 1972 at the age of 63. The 1973 Art Biennale, one year after his death, held an anthological exhibition in the island's contemporary art museum. His work aroused and continues to arouse continued interest. That is why anthological exhibitions have been and continue to be held:

  • 1973: In honor of El Punto, Galerie Haus Widmann, Austria (with an opening speech by Dr. Eberhard Lutze)
  • 1991: Monographic exhibition El Punto, Van der Voort Gallery, Ibiza
  • 1991: Exhibition "Una visió històrica de la pintura a Eivissa, 1900 - 1959" of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Ibiza with a work by El Punto
  • 1993: Exhibition "100 anys, 100 pintors, 1893 - 1993" by the Conselleria Cultura del Govern Balear, the Consell Insular de Mallorca and the Ajuntament de Palma in Sa Llonja, Palma with a work by El Punto
  • 1996: Participation in the exhibition "Abstraccions" of the Consellaria de Cultura del Govern balear
  • 1998: Exhibition "Eivissa, anys 60" of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Ibiza with a work by El Punto
  • 1998/99: Monographic exhibition of "Sa Nostra" (Caixa de Balears) in La Sala de Cultura, Ibiza
  • 1999: Monographic exhibition of “Sa Nostra” (Caixa de Balears) in the Center de Cultura of Palma de Mallorca

Of all these exhibitions, the exhibition of “Sa Nostra”, the “Caixa de Balears” (Sparkasse of the Balearic Islands), from 1998/99 must be singled out. On the occasion of these exhibitions a comprehensive and important catalog of his complete works was published. El Punto has developed a highly intensive exhibition activity in his artistic life. In addition to exhibitions in Germany (Berlin, Bremen, Munich, Mainz, Bonn, Hamburg) and in Spain (Barcelona, ​​Murcia, Málaga, Madrid, València, Granada, Begur, Cádiz, Bilbao, Córdoba) he also has in France (Paris) and issued in Switzerland (Zurich). More than 40 individual and 35 participations in collective exhibitions between 1951 and 1972 are documented. Articles about him have been published in the “Gran Enciclopèdia de la Pintura i l'Escultura a les Balears”, in the “Diccionari Ràfols”, in the “Enciclopèdia d'Eivissa i Formentera” and in the “Enciclopèdia Catalana”.

literature

  • Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana . 2nd edition, Volume 11, Barcelona 1988, 5th reprint 1992, ISBN 84-7739-006-1 , page 336, article Frank el Punto . (Catalan)
  • Pere A. Serra i Bauzà: El misteri de Frank el Punto i l'eclectisme de Juli Ramis. Memòries d'un Muse, diàlegs en es Baluard, Palma 2007, pages 86–90 (publication of the museum for modern and contemporary art " Es Baluard " in Palma de Mallorca)
  • Obra Social de Sa Nostra (editor): "Frank El Punto". Catàleg il·lustrat exposició 1998/99, Palma 1998 (exhibition catalog published by the Caixa de Balears)
  • Conselleria Cultura del Govern Balear, Consell Insular de Mallorca, Ajuntament de Palma (publisher): "100 anys, 100 pintors" (1893-1993). Palma 1993, pages 78 and 132 (exhibition "100 years, 100 painters" in Sa Llonja, Palma 1993)
  • Gran Enciclopèdia de la Pintura i l'Escultura a les Balears, Volume 2, pages 123–125, article "El Punto, Frank"
  • Enciclopèdia d'Eivissa i Formentera, digital edition, article "El Punto, Frank"

Web links

Individual references and comments

  1. ↑ In the article personal information about Frank el Punto is given, which is partly based on information provided by the artist's daughter Christiane, Christiane Gerrit Schaefer de Rose, to the blogger Miquel Alenyà . According to his own statements, he is jointly responsible for publications by the social work of “Sa Nostra” (Caixa de Balears). “Sa Nostra” has curated major posthumous exhibitions on Frank el Punto. This additional information (specifically in this article: the daily life data, the more precisely defined illness from which El Punto suffered and the information about the parental home in Mainz) is absolutely credible and fits seamlessly with the information of all other publications on Frank el Punto together.
  2. ↑ Dr. Eberhard Lutze held leading positions in the Bremen cultural authorities before 1945 and also after 1945. Until 1973 he headed the Bremen cultural authority. He was jointly responsible for the ostracism of Bremen artists during the Nazi dictatorship. (Cf. Rainer Beßling: "Later Memory". Degenerate - Confiscated: Bremen exhibition traces regional traces of Nazi propaganda. In MK Kreiszeitung (Mediengruppe Kreiszeitung) of September 5, 2009)


personal data
SURNAME Punto, Frank el
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schaefer, Frank L.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and graphic designer
DATE OF BIRTH January 17, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Mainz
DATE OF DEATH 7th February 1972
Place of death Sant Antoni de Portmany ( Ibiza )