Friedrich Meckseper Biography
Friedrich Meckseper was born in 1936 in Bremen. He spent his childhood in Stuttgart and served an apprenticeship as a mechanic at Robert Bosch GmbH from 1952 to 1955. In the year he started working at Bosch, he began his course of study, first at the State Academy for the visual arts of Stuttgart under Professor Karl Rössing. He continued his studies at the College for Visual Arts in Berlin from 1957 to 1959 under the guidance of Professor Wolf Hoffmann.
Meckseper's first engravings were completed during this period. In 1963 he received the Rome German Prize from Villa Massimo; in 1965 he received a cultural circle stipend from the Association of German Industry; in 1970 he was awarded the prize of the 7th Tokyo Print Biennial. He was influenced in his artistic works by Anton Heyoer, Bosch, Leonardo, Saul Steinberg and Hamaguchi, among others. He created oil prints, etchings, collages and objects that produce a mysterious tension in the observer.
The minimalist arrangement of objects in his works is supported by his technical precision, and the detailed gears and springs found in his works provide insight into his broader interest in technology and the physical sciences. For example, in 1972, he designed and built a steamboat and crossed the Alps in a hot air balloon in 1979, '80, '82 and '86. He was a guest professor at the Bergische Universitat in Wuppertal, Germany, in 1977 and 1978 and took over the printmaking class from 1977 to 1979.
Meckseper was honored at the 6th Norwegian International Print Biennial in Fredrikstad in 1982 and received the prize of the First and Second Kochi International Triennial Print Exhibitions in Japan in 1990 and 1993. From 1961 until his move to Berlin in 1984, Meckseper lived and worked in the artists' colony of Worpswede. Friedrich Meckseper died on 5 June 2019 in Berlin.
