You wish to be alarmed for any new work by this artist? Please enter your email.
Born to French mother and American father, John-Franklin Koenig was born in 1924 in Seattle (United States). As a young man, he served with the Armored Division in Europe during World War II and has been wounded. After finishing his studies in United States, he came to France. In 1945, he started painting at the G.I University in Biarritz. Being in Paris in 1948, he joined the Sorbonne. He met Jean Robert Arnaud who became his professional partner. In the fifties, the Galerie...
-
read more ARTIST ALARM
Biography of John-Franklin Koenig
Born to French mother and American father, John-Franklin Koenig was born in 1924 in Seattle (United States). As a young man, he served with the Armored Division in Europe during World War II and has been wounded. After finishing his studies in United States, he came to France. In 1945, he started painting at the G.I University in Biarritz. Being in Paris in 1948, he joined the Sorbonne. He met Jean Robert Arnaud who became his professional partner. In the fifties, the Galerie Arnaud, and the art review « Cimaise », were devoted entirely to non-figurative art in France. He did a column in the magazine about daance. The young art critic Michel Ragon, (he made him discover United States in 1958), associated Koenig to artists like Martin Barre, James Guitet or Pierre Fichet as a representative of abstract landscaping. American in Paris, John-Franklin Koenig was always between Seattle and Paris, but he was also travelling regularly in the whole world. His artworks were showed in more than 220 personal exhibitions and more than 400 group exhibitions. John-Franklin Koenig, in his research about light, space and rhythm, used a palette of different sizes and various techniques : collages, oil and acrylic on canvas, prints (linocuts and lithographs), inks, drawings and gouaches on paper, monotypes, tapestries. « Painter and Glue Man », as he defined himself, Koenig used to excel in many areas. Protean artist, he said that a painter could be at the same time a writer, a poet, a weaver, a musician... Great traveller, he found inspiration in Americas, Orient, Indochina, and most in Japan where he used to travel : John-Franklin Koenig became a kind of ambassador of parisian artistic cosmopolitanism. Paris has been his home base for 35 years, then in 2004 he went back in his hometown to end his days. He died in Seattle in 2008.
Voir & découvrir
The work presented on this page is not available anymore.
Catalogue(s) raisonné(s)
Catalogue(s) raisonné(s)
Not realised. All the "catalogues raisonnés"Bibliographic track & more
To read from or about the artist :
* « Une Aventure de l'Art Abstrait », catalogue d'exposition, Musée Galliera, Paris, et Musée de Nantes, 1967* « Sept Américains de Paris », catalogue d'exposition collective, Centre culturel américain, Paris, 1967
* « USA Groupe 68 », catalogue d'exposition collective, Musée des beaux arts de Lyon, 1968
* « John-Franklin Koenig », Michel Faucher, in revue Cimaise, n°202, sept.-oct. 1989
* « John-Franklin Koenig 1924-2008 : un américain à Angers et Nantes », Collectif, Fage Editions, 2011
* « John-Franklin Koenig, un demi siècle de présence artistique », catalogue d'exposition, Galerie Atelier 28 Paris-Seattle-Tokyo, 2013
Website :
No website dedicated to the artist.Stamp :
No stamp made.Art movements
- + SCHOOL OF PARIS / 1945-1960 / Jean Degottex, Georges Mathieu, Nicolas de Staël, etc.
- + NEW REALITIES / 1946-1956 / Etienne Béothy, Marcelle Cahn, etc.
Valuation - Brokerage
If you wish to offer an artwork by this artist or get an appraisal, please feel free to contact us.
Artists on display
The art and the artists display: proclamations, galleries, museums, personal or collective exhibitions. On walls or in shop windows, wise or rebels, posters warn, argue, show. Some were specially conceived by an artist for such or such event, other, colder, have only the letter.
Some were created in lithographic technic, most are simple offset reproductions. They are many those who like collecting these rectangles of paper, monochrome or in games of colours, in matt paper or brilliant, with many words or almost dumb.
We are happy also to be able to greet, by this pages, mythical galleries as those of Denise René, Louis Carré, Claude Bernard, Berheim Jeune, Maeght, Pierre Loeb and others.