The Frankfurt poet and visual artist Franz Mon is dead. As has now become known, he died in his hometown of Frankfurt, where he was born on May 6, 1926, on April 7 at the age of 95.
For many decades, Mon was considered one of the most important representatives of so-called Concrete Poetry.
Eva Maria Magel
Senior cultural editor of the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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And he was a part of Frankfurt's city history, literally, for Mon, who was born Franz Loeffelholz, has been there continuously, without rushing to the limelight, at Frankfurt's Romanfabrik, for example, and in later years in local galleries as well.
Because his collages and word and letter works created on the typewriter have always been perceived as great art in literature.
The visual arts have probably found it a bit more difficult, although Mon has always done both.
He has won art prizes, was a documenta artist and took part in the Biennale.
Mortuarium reconstructed
In the literary world he was the last of the great representatives of Concrete Poetry, Helmut Heissenbüttel, Ernst Jandl, Eugen Gomringer predeceased him.
Mon always seemed active, extremely busy in a cheerful, quiet, always updating, and in 2021, in anticipation of two important exhibitions of his art in the Rhine-Main region, he reported to the FAZ about so many projects that he wanted to complete , a catalog raisonné, a biography of his father, the desks full of material.
letters, pictures.
Material and rule, that was the basis of the word and image art, which seemed playful and yet serious.
"Mortuarium for 2 Alphabets" was the name of the work he created in 1970 for the Venice Biennale,
that traveled the world and was then purchased for the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Frankfurt.
It had never been shown, water damage had destroyed it, there was only one model in Mon's well-stocked working memory.
In 2021, the Friedberger Galerie Hoffmann was able to reconstruct it with the help of the Corona funds from "Neustart Kultur": A room made of letters, a Memento Mori.
But one that has been shown as an "invitation to celebrate."
With a good two dozen text works, radio plays and hundreds of visual works, from "free flight for fang questions" to "herzzero", Franz Mon is remembered.
In 2021, the Friedberger Galerie Hoffmann was able to reconstruct it with the help of the Corona funds from "Neustart Kultur": A room made of letters, a Memento Mori.
But one that has been shown as an "invitation to celebrate."
With a good two dozen text works, radio plays and hundreds of visual works, from "free flight for fang questions" to "herzzero", Franz Mon is remembered.
In 2021, the Friedberger Galerie Hoffmann was able to reconstruct it with the help of the Corona funds from "Neustart Kultur": A room made of letters, a Memento Mori.
But one that has been shown as an "invitation to celebrate."
With a good two dozen text works, radio plays and hundreds of visual works, from “free flight for fang questions” to “herzzero”, Franz Mon is remembered.