"flower Vase" Painting

Franz Priking was a German painter born on August 7, 1929, in Mülheim and who died on June 10, 1979, in Oppède (Vaucluse).

Franz Priking took up painting after completing his studies in philosophy, initially gravitating toward a lyrical abstraction that “revealed a sensibility in search of itself.” His subsequent stays at the Bauhaus in Weimar (1948) and the Berlin Academy of Arts (where he studied under Max Pechstein from 1948 to 1950 and where Karl Hofer praised his drawings) introduced him to German Expressionism, a form of art more in tune with his temperament. It was during this period in Berlin, through the painter Hans Tombrock (de), that Priking became close to Bertolt Brecht, living for ten months in the playwright’s vicinity.

In 1950, Franz Priking left Germany for Paris, where he stayed only briefly before heading to Provence and settling in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. During his first French exhibition at the Musée Réattu in Arles in 1952, he met Pablo Picasso and went on to work for seven months under the master’s guidance in Vallauris:

In 1953–1954, moving beyond a brief Cubist phase inspired by Picasso, the broad black outlines began to appear in his paintings—outlines with which he would consistently frame objects and which remain today the most recognizable feature of his work, also interpreted as a quest for this “new realism” in the free spirit of Bertolt Brecht’s theories, which he would explain in a text, Manifesto of New Realism.

In 1970, after a brief abstract period, a form of symbolism found its way into Franz Priking’s work, which until then had been purely representational (nudes, still lifes, landscapes)

Franz Priking died on June 10, 1979, just a few weeks before his retrospective exhibition, which was to be the highlight of the summer season at the Château de Val. His painting The Château de Val, now housed at the château, was his final work