Frans Masereel

Frans Masereel (July 31, 1889 - January 3, 1972) was a Flemish painter and is considered one of the greatest woodcut artists of the twentieth century. He was educated by the Ghent painter Jean Delvin at the Ghent Academy of Fine Art. He settled in France in 1910, then moved to Switzerland in 1914 then in 1921 to Paris and later Berlin where his closest creative friend was George Grosz. After World War II, Masereel lived in Avignon and Nice, France. His greatest work is generally said to be the wordless graphic novel "Mon Livre d'Heures" ("Passionate Journey"). He completed over 20 other wordless novels in his career. His work has strongly influenced the work of Clifford Harper as well as Eric Drooker.

There is now a Frans Masereel Centre (Frans Masereel Centrum for Graphix) in the small village of Kasterlee in Belgium.

Biography

The painter and graphic artist Frans Masereel, born in the Belgian Blankenberge in 1889, moved to Ghent in 1896, where he began to study at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at the class of Jean Delvin at the age of 18.cite web | last =Lambiek Comiclopedia | title = Frans Masereel | url = http://lambiek.net/artists/m/masereel_frans.htm] In 1909 he went on trips to England and Germany, which inspired him to first etchings and woodcuts. From 1911 on Masereel settled in Paris for four years and then he emigrated to Switzerland, where he worked as a graphic artist for various journals and magazines. The woodcut series, mainly of sociocritical content and of expressionistic form concept, made Masereel internationally known. Among theses were the so-called image novels like "Die Passion eines Menschen", "Mein Stundenbuch", "Die Sonne", "Die Idee" and "Geschichte ohne Worte", which dated all from c. 1920. At that time Masereel also drew illustrations for famous works of world literature by Thomas Mann, Emile Zola and Stefan Zweig. In 1921 the artist returned to Paris, where his famous street scenes, the Montmartre-paintings, came into existence. Since 1925 he lived near Boulogne-sur-Mer, where he painted predominantly coast areas, harbour views as well as portraits of sailors and fishermen. During the 1930s the number of illustrated books and single woodcuts decreased. In 1940 the artist fled from Paris and lived in several cities in Southern France. At the end of World War II Masereel was able to resume his resting artistic work and produced woodcuts and paintings. Since 1946 he worked for several years as a teacher at the Staatliche Schule für Kunst und Kunstgewerbe in Saarbrücken. In 1949 Masereel settled in Nice. In the following years until 1968 several series of woodcuts were published, which differ from his earlier ‚novels in picture' in basing on variations of a subject instead of being a continuing narrative. Furthermore he designed decorations and costumes for numerous theatre productions. The artist was honoured in numerous exhibitions and became a member of several academies. Frans Masereel died in Avignon in 1972 and was entombed in Ghent. The cultural organization Masereelfonds was named after him.

Influence

Famed American graphic novel creator Will Eisner cited Masereel as an influence on his work.

References

External links

* [http://www.frans-masereel.de/ Frans Masereel Foundation site] de_icon
* [http://www.iisg.nl/exhibitions/art/indexmasereel.html Frans Masereel images and biography]
* [http://www.nebulous-cargo.com/masereel Frans Masereel - The City]
* [http://www.fransmasereelcentrum.be/ Frans Masereel Centre, Artist in Residence - Belgium]