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Tribute to
Herbert W. Franke
In Honor of the Dinosaur of Computer Art
by art meets science – Foundation Herbert W. Franke

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Karl Martin Holzhäuser


Montage 7.2008 1/5, photo print of digital graphics, 35 x 35 cm, 2008

Thank you, dear friend Herbert!

As a trained photographer, I first came into contact with the work of Herbert W. Franke on the occasion of his exhibition at the Werkkunstschule Bielefeld in 1968. I was quickly fascinated by his work. I was particularly inspired a few years later by “Apparative Kunst,” a book he published together with Gottfried Jäger in 1973. At that time, my former mentor, Gottfried Jäger, had already given me a teaching position at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Bielefeld, and it was through him that I became personally acquainted with Herbert.

Our works were exhibited together in a number of exhibitions, most of which Herbert was involved in curating: for example, in 1971 at the International Design Center in Berlin or in 1973 at the ETH Zurich. That means working at a time when Herbert had already moved over to the camp of digital artists. Of course, Herbert made an effort from the beginning to interest us photographers in “his” tool, the computer. However, it took me until the 1990s before I took the plunge into digital myself. This would have taken much longer without Herbert’s works and words. So it’s clear that for the Tribute to my friend Herbert, I chose a work for the collection of the Foundation Herbert W. Franke that was created with the help of the computer.

Thank you, Herbert, for your constant inspiration and numerous suggestions on my artistic path through words and your works over the years. 

BIO

Karl Martin Holzhäuser (*1944) studied at the Hamburg Hochschule für Bildende Künste from 1966 to 1969. In 1969/70 he worked as a photographer in Nuremberg and in 1970-72 as art director at the Vogelsänger Studios in Bielefeld. In 1970, he began his university career as a lecturer in photography at the University of Applied Sciences in Bielefeld, Germany, where he became professor of photography in 1975. His work was shown in many international solo exhibitions. In 1994, he started to work with computer graphics and multimedi

Karl Martin Holzhäuser lives in Bielefeld.