Gerhard Franke (24 April 1926 – 22 October 2002) was a German

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

Biography

Franke was born in Lugau in Sachsen and grew up in

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt (); ; ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and the fourth-largest city in the area of former East Germany after (East Be ...

. After completing his

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

, he studied art in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

at the Staatlichen Akademie für graphische Künste und Buchgewerbe, where he was a student of Elisabeth Voigt and then cello at the

University of Music and Theatre Leipzig The University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig () is a public university in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn as the Conservatorium der Musik (Conservatory of Music), it is the oldest univ ...

."Gerhard Franke, Landschaften. Burgkapelle Arnshaugk Ausstellung vom 12. Mai bis 17. Juni 2007 (2007)" After a wrist injury that ended his music career, he dedicated himself to painting but soon came into conflict with the repressive

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

regime, wanting to do abstract painting, instead of the state sanctioned Socialist Realism. After years of teaching art at small country schools in

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

, Franke and his wife, Ute, established a successful ceramics business in 1966. Freed from relying on any official

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

support, his abstract work from the 1960s and 70s was often critical of the

Stasi The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive pol ...

and depicted primitive, abstract creatures caught in a web of state oppression, thus he never exhibited in the GDR. After

German Reunification German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...

, Franke turned toward figurative paintings set in the countryside around the castle of Arnshaugk, near

Neustadt an der Orla Neustadt an der Orla is a town in Saale-Orla-Kreis district, in Thuringia. It is situated at the small river Orla (Saale), Orla, 17 km north of Schleiz, and 25 km southeast of Jena. The former municipality Stanau was merged into Neustadt ...

, where he had lived as a recluse until his death in 2002.

References

* http://www.artnet.de/K%C3%BCnstler/gerhard-franke/auktionsresultate {{DEFAULTSORT:Franke, Gerhard 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters 1926 births 2002 deaths