Fritz Wilhelm Faiss (March 6, 1905 – October 1, 1981) was a

German-American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

artist.

Life and work

Faiss was born on March 6, 1905 in the town of

Furtwangen Furtwangen im Schwarzwald (; Low Alemannic: ''Furtwange im Schwarzwald'') is a small city located in the Black Forest region of southwestern Germany. Together with Villingen-Schwenningen, Furtwangen is part of the district (German: Kreis) of Sc ...

, a town in the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is t ...

section of Germany. He studied at the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

, where he was influenced by various artists including

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

and

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

, as well as the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts. He also had training as a medical doctor. Faiss flourished in his art and teaching until the Nazis took power, and thereafter he was viewed by the German government as a degenerate artist. He was harassed by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

and forbidden to work as an artist, and much of his artwork was destroyed. Eventually he was sent by the Nazis to a forced labor camp, where he spent about a year and became very sick. After the war, he returned to his art and teaching. In 1951, he emigrated to the United States, where he settled in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. He became renowned for his hot wax artwork known as

encaustic painting Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, is a form of painting that involves a heated wax medium to which colored pigments have been added. The molten mix is applied to a surface—usually prepared wood, though canvas and other mat ...

, but he also became an expert painter using many other methods including monotypes,

water colors Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting met ...

tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done ...

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

woodcuts Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

, and

line drawings Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Arts ...

. Much of his art has biblical, mythological, and mystical themes. He taught at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

and

Otis Art Institute Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aerospace headquarte ...

, and eventually became a tenured professor of art at

California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...

, where he retired as professor emeritus in 1973. His artwork has been installed and exhibited throughout the world, including France, Italy, Germany, England, and the United States.

Personal life

Faiss was married to Janet Wullner until his death in 1981 at the age of 76.

Publications

*Faiss, Fritz. ''Lenticle: two interviews with Fritz Faiss.'' Valencia Hills (Saugus, Calif.) : Green Hut Press, 1972. *Faiss, Fritz. ''Hackney jade and the war-horse.'' Valencia Hills, Calif. : Green Hut Press, 1977. *Faiss, Fritz. ''The blue glass Napoleon.'' Northridge, Calif. : Art Dept. Gallery, San Fernando Valley State College, 1964. *Faiss, Fritz. ''Concerning the way of color : an artist's approach.'' Valencia Hills, Calif. : Green Hut Press, 1977. *Faiss, Fritz. ''Out of loneliness.'' Saugus, Calif. : Green Hut Press, 1972. *Faiss, Fritz. ''Fritz Wilhelm Faiss : artist file : study photographs and reproductions of works of art with accompanying documentation 1920-2000.'' Frick Art Reference Library, 2000. *Faiss, Fritz. ''Modern art and man's search for the self.'' Saugus, Calif. : Green Hut Press, 1974. *Faiss, Fritz. ''Fritz Faiss, retrospective exhibition featuring the Big Sur and Cambria Pines Series : Palm Springs Desert Museum : 23 March 1963.'' Palm Springs, Calf. : Palm Springs Desert Museum, 1963. *Faiss, Fritz, and Hilldebrandt, Hans. ''Fritz Faiss, Gesamtschau 1947 : Pforzheim, vom 3. Juni-2. Juli, in den Räumen der Militärregierung. Pforzheim : 1947.

Awards

*1935: Prix de Rome *1952: Huntington Hartford Foundation Fellowship

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Faiss, Fritz 1905 births 1981 deaths Abstract expressionist artists American contemporary painters Modern artists 20th-century American painters American male painters German emigrants to the United States 20th-century American male artists