Schütt, Franz Theodor

Painter, graphic artist, draughtsman

born: 15.12.1908 in Berlin

died: 28.12.1990 in Wiesbaden

The son of the Pomeranian painter and teacher at the Stettin School of Arts and Crafts, Franz Friedrich Christian Schütt (1874-1962), studied sculpture in Stettin from 1925-31 and focused on ceramics and interior design. He then studied painting and drawing with his father and attended the architecture class of Gregor Rosenbauer (1890-1966). Schütt was a member of the Pomeranian Artists' Association, founded in 1916, and regularly took part in exhibitions from 1927. Schütt lived as a freelance artist in Stettin and Danzig from 1931-40.

His participation in the Second World War (from 1940) and subsequent British captivity took him to northern France and the Channel Islands of Guernsey and Jersey. There he produced numerous drawings and watercolors, which only partially made up for the loss of almost 1,000 works that were destroyed in a bombing raid on Stettin in 1943.

He worked as a freelance painter and graphic artist in Wiesbaden from 1950 until his death. In addition to portraits of girls and women, he created landscapes, street views and interiors. In 1965 he co-founded the Wiesbadener Gruppe Real, and from 1971-78 he was a lecturer at the TH Darmstadt in the art department (painting, drawing, graphics). Throughout his life, Schütt was a realist, unperturbed by the zeitgeist of abstraction. Otto Dix, Alexander Kanoldt and his friend Mac Zimmermann (1912-1995) were decisive influences on his art. Schütt showed his work in numerous exhibitions, including the Great Art Exhibition in Munich in 1955, 1972 and 1973. The Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden e.V. dedicated two major retrospectives to him in 1979 and 1989.

Schütt received numerous honors: the Silver Citizen's Medal in 1976, the Lovis Corinth Prize in 1979, the Federal Cross of Merit in 1981 and the Cultural Prize of the State Capital of Wiesbaden in 1985.

Schütt was buried in the Biebrich cemetery. Half of his artistic estate was acquired by the city of Wiesbaden in 1993, the other half by the Pomeranian State Museum (2000) in Greifswald.