Fritz Harnest

Fritz Harnest (1905–1999) was a German painter, printmaker and collage artist. He was a creator of abstract modern art in Germany after World War II.^[1]

Fritz Harnest
Photo: Joseph Harnest, 1970
Born	(1905-08-16)16 August 1905 Munich, Germany
Died	28 January 1999(1999-01-28) (aged 93) Traunstein, Germany
Nationality	German
Known for	Painting, Woodcut

Biography

Harnest studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich from 1921 to 1929. He travelled frequently to France in 1930–1931 with the German painter Otto Baumann [de].^[2] He ceased painting after the Nazi seizure of power but later resumed his career, creating woodcuts and murals. From 1940 to 1945 he worked as an interpreter in Stalag VII-A in Moosburg. In 1959 he was a participant of II. documenta in Kassel.

Art in public space

• 
  Colored window in the stairwell of the Technical University of Munich.^[3]
• 
  Ceramics on the walls of a stairwell in the tax office at Säckingen (with Richard Bampi [de]).^[4]

Honours

• 1961: 2nd prize at the „II. Internationalen Triennale Grenchen“ for colored original graphics, Switzerland
• 1969: medal of honor at the “Triennale Internazionale della Xilographia Contemporanea Capri”, Italy
• 1996: Bundesverdienstkreuz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Further reading

• (in German) Harnest, Fritz. In: Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon. Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker (AKL). Band 69, de Gruyter, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-598-23036-3, S. 369
• Joseph Harnest, Stephan Harnest, Peter Schunda: Fritz Harnest – Das eigene Ringen um die Kunst., Übersee 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-020719-8.
• Ruth Negendanck: Künstlerlandschaft Chiemsee. Fischerhude 2008, S. 179–204. ISBN 978-3-88132-286-7

External links

• Literature by and about Fritz Harnest in the German National Library catalogue
• Fritz Harnest in the Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio]
• Fritz Harnest in: Berkeley Library Archived 2018-08-25 at the Wayback Machine in the University of California