Franz Frank

This article is about the painter Franz Frank. For the theologian, see Franz Hermann Reinhold Frank .

Franz Frank, 1984 in his garden

Franz Frank (born April 7, 1897 in Kirchheim unter Teck , † April 1, 1986 in Marburg an der Lahn ) was a German painter and graphic artist .

Franz Frank is attributed to the " lost generation " as a painter by the art historian Rainer Zimmermann .

Life

After participating in the First World War, Frank studied in Erlangen and Tübingen from 1919 to 1921 and received his doctorate in art history with the work Unbeknownst to Development Lines in 19th Century Painting . During his studies in Erlangen he became a member of the Bubenreuther fraternity in the winter semester of 1914/15 . From 1921 to 1925 he studied at the Stuttgart Art Academy with Arnold Waldschmidt and Robert Breyer . In 1926 he moved to Dresden.

In his work he dealt with the achievements of expressionism , which he translated into "painterly painting". The main models for him were Emil Nolde , Lovis Corinth and Vincent van Gogh . More important to him than his teachers, however, were the lifelong friendships with painters of about the same age, Wilhelm Geyer , Hans Fähnle and Joseph Kneer, and with the writer Eduard Reinacher . His early work dominated social and time-critical issues. In 1928 he illustrated the communist manifesto of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in a graphic picture portfolio. But also landscapes and still lifes created in large numbers. From 1928 to 1933 he took part in the exhibitions of the “Juryfrei Kunstschau Berlin” (also called Juryfrei Kunstausstellung ), which from 1930 was called “Freie Kunstschau Berlin”. He also became a member of the artists' association “ Stuttgarter Neue Sezession ”. In 1931 he was appointed as a lecturer at the Pedagogical Academy in Kassel , but this was closed in 1932 due to the " Brüning austerity measures" and Frank was put on hold. In 1933 he was finally dismissed after he was not ready to join the NSDAP . During the National Socialist tyranny, his art was considered " degenerate ". On November 20, 1944, he was seriously wounded on the island of Ösel in Estonia and reached the hospital in the Latvian city of Windau with one of the last transports of the wounded .

After the Second World War he lived with his family in the Otto Ubbelohde house in Goßfelden near Marburg. Many trips to the south were made. Large exhibitions of Frank's works took place in Stuttgart , Kirchheim unter Teck , Marburg an der Lahn and Frankfurt . In 1954 the "Thank You Donation of the German People" bought the painting "Landscape in April".

In 1988 a large retrospective with over 100 paintings by the painter took place in Berlin . To mark the artist's 100th birthday, an exhibition traveled from Marburg an der Lahn via Wilhelmshaven , Böblingen , Hausen ob Verena to Kißlegg . In addition, extensive graphic exhibitions of the painter took place in Kirchheim unter Teck and in the Museum Bensheim. Students of the late Frank are the Marburg painters Karl-Heinz Kress and Wolfgang A. Gabrian .

literature

• Literature by and about Franz Frank in the catalog of the German National Library
• Rainer Zimmermann: Franz Frank. Life and work of the painter . Munich: Klinkhardt and Biermann, 1985, ISBN 3-7814-0256-8 .
• Rainer Zimmermann: Franz Frank. Printmaking. Catalog raisonné of the etchings and lithographs . Munich: Hirmer, 1994.
• General Artist Lexicon Volume XLIV, 2005, p. 35.
• Ingrid von der Dollen: Franz Frank, 1897-1986. A biography in the mirror of painting . Tutzing: Hierling 2016, ISBN 978-3-925435-28-7 .
• Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume II: Artists. Winter, Heidelberg 2018, ISBN 978-3-8253-6813-5 , pp. 211-213.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ernst Höhne: The Bubenreuther. History of a German fraternity. II., Erlangen 1936, p. 336.

Web links

• Museum of the University of Marburg: Expressive Realism - Zimmermann Foundation ( Memento from November 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
• Page to the painter Franz Frank