Markus Fräger

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Markus Fräger (* 1959 in Hamm ; † 2020 in Cologne ) was a German painter and musician .

biography

Markus Fräger was already involved in painting in his youth. In the late 1970s he sang in the rock and roll band The California Wheelstand Kings from Unna . In 1979 he studied at the Braunschweig University of Fine Arts . Living in a shared apartment , he founded the rockabilly formation Alley Cats there in 1980 with his brother Luitger Fräger and some musicians from Dortmund . He also completed a degree in art history and archeology at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster until 1986 .

After the Alley Cats were renamed The Ace Cats, the group, in which Fräger took over the lead vocals and played the accordion , received a recording contract and released various singles and three albums until 1986 . Particularly successful was the song Linda , which reached the German Top 20 in 1984 and took first place in the ZDF hit parade . Fräger also designed the cover of the accompanying album Cats Dance Through the Night . He was also responsible for the design of the cover for the 1986 album Strahlemann by the band Herne 3 .

After Fräger left the Ace Cats in 1986, he turned back mainly to painting and worked as a set designer for the Koblenz Theater . He staged a number of avant-garde pop projects with the New York artist Colette . Under the artist name Kreisler, Fräger realized a synth-pop project in 1990 that combined elements from rockabilly and pop, and released the album Hooked on Love . The single of the same name enabled him to appear in the ZDF hit parade . The song So Bizarre entered the German airplay charts in April of that year and reached number 68.

Markus Fräger began to deal with the medium of painting at a young age. His father, the graphic artist and sculptor Wolfgang Fräger , introduced him to the basics of drawing and imparted his first basic knowledge of perspective treatment and anatomy . Stylistically, his paintings can be located in the art direction of figuration . The film noir and the Baroque painting exerted a great influence on his artistic development. A pronounced painterly chiaroscuro , as in baroque painting, for example by Caravaggio and Peter Paul Rubens , characterize the appearance of his compositions. These are often loosened up by contrasting color accents. Markus Fräger makes use of cinematic quotations and stylized elements from Baroque paintings in his paintings. The films that were his role model include works such as State of Grace , the films of the Coen brothers , the Hard Boiled genre and the lighting by David Lynch . Similar to a director, Markus Fräger also stages his motifs. In his studio he recreates the plot to be painted with actors. In addition, he photographs film scenes that he sees on his computer and television and then composes them into new image quotations. The photographic preparation is followed by the painting, which consists of several levels: The primed, unpainted canvas is used in the first step to clean the brushes that are wiped off on the surface. Then it is painted over again. The result is a collaged aesthetic that is reminiscent of the décollage technique of the 1960s.

In 1993 the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Bildender Künste am Mittelrhein awarded him the Hans Sprung Prize. To this day there are exhibitions of his works in many galleries , including the Bloxham Galleries London (2001), the Galerie Gordon Pym & Fils Paris (2005), the Galerie Friedmann-Hahn Berlin (2015) and many others in German-speaking countries . Fräger last lived and worked in Cologne .

Solo exhibitions (selection)

Works in museums and public collections (selection)

Discography

album

  • 1990: Hooked on Love ( Ariola )

Singles

  • 1990: Hooked on Love
  • 1990: So bizarre
  • 1991: Disconnected
  • 1992: Sorrow's Just a State of Mind

* All of the specified sound carriers appeared under the pseudonym Kreisler.

literature

  • Sickert, Maxi : “Markus Fräger. Emerging Memory “, Berlin: Galerie Friedmann-Hahn, 2019
  • Schilling, Jürgen : “Markus Fräger. The Sleepwalker ”, Berlin: Galerie Friedmann-Hahn, 2015
  • Craftsman, Martina: “Markus Fräger. The simultaneity of the non-simultaneous ”, Berlin: Galerie Friedmann-Hahn, 2012
  • Anonymous author: Kunstverein Hamm shows pictures by Markus Fräger . Published on April 8, 2013 in Westfälischer Anzeiger Article online
  • Ruthe, Ingeborg: The mysteries of everyday life . Published on August 30, 2012 in Berliner Zeitung Article online
  • Westerhoff, Friedrich: Markus Fräger shows modern art in the basilica . Published on August 28, 2010 in The West Article online

swell

  1. ^ Obituary notice of the artist on the page of his gallery Friedmann-Hahn, Berlin
  2. ^ Hit balance sheet, German chart singles on CD-ROM, Taurus Press
  3. ^ Exhibition list at Galerie Friedmann-Hahn, Berlin

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Fräger, Markus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kreisler (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and musician
DATE OF BIRTH 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamm , Germany
DATE OF DEATH 2020