April 15-June 13, 2012: Friederich Friz Paintings and Drawings

 

About the Artist

Friedrich Friz was born on June 30, 1900 in Germany. He received a scholarship to the Kunstakademie in Karlsruhe at about the age of 21 and studied there for approximately 6 years. He received a Masters degree in Art, and, after graduation, he taught at the Kuntsakademie for about a year.

With economic times being about the worst they could be, he decided to make a living by painting houses and furniture. He traveled with a Kunstakademie colleague to Switzerland and Italy in the traditional “Wanderjahre” for artists, working here and there to support himself.

He returned to Germany, and with Hitler in power, was requested to join the Nationalist Art Association, which he refused, since he was a progressive artist and did not identify with the requirements of that organization. After that, he was declared a degenerate artist and was sent to a hard labor camp until the end of the war. Hard labor and painting pictures did not work well together; he made only sketches during that time.

After the war, he studied to become a Master Craftsman in house- and furniture-painting and received his Master designation in that craft. With this profession, he made his living.

He could only paint pictures in his free time, which he did with a passion. When he passed away in 1983, there were thousands of paintings in his house, which were distributed among his brothers and sister and their offspring. His wife had passed away before him and there were no children.

A portion of his paintings was donated to the Heimat Museum in Welzheim, where he was born, and where he lived almost all of his life.