Franz Josef Ponstingl (1927-2004) Postmodern Geometric Sculptural Assemblage, Signed (1980)/Op Art

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Franz Josef Ponstingl (1927-2004) - Untitled Geometric Sculptural Assemblage, Signed (1980, Mixed Media). Composed of painted wood geometric shapes adhered … Read more Franz Josef Ponstingl (1927-2004) - Untitled Geometric Sculptural Assemblage, Signed (1980, Mixed Media). Composed of painted wood geometric shapes adhered to a textured fabric background. Signed and dated en verso. In good condition with scuffs and scratches along the edges of the sculpture and frame. Please reference photos for details.

Size: 18”H x 25.5”W

Franz Josef Ponstingl lived mainly in rural Pennsylvania and California, far from the hub of the 20th-century art world. And once, in the late 1960s, he hauled everything he’d made up until that point to his local Salvation Army and left it there. He died in 2004, having enjoyed little success as an artist.

But oblivion, it seems, does not want Franz Jozef Ponstingl. Salvation Army employees realized the trove was special and tipped off Bert Baum, a local art dealer who had a gallery in Sellersville, Pa. Baum bought it all and mounted a solo show of Ponstingl pieces in 1971, stapling the unstretched canvases to the walls and broadly likening them to the imagery found in Fellini films. The show didn’t sell out, but it sold well, and it represented the high point of Ponstingl’s career while he was alive. In recent years, however, the artist has been receiving a lot more attention, including museum shows. “Rediscovering Ponstingl: Visions of the Extraordinary” was held at the Baum School of Art in Allentown, Pa., in 2016, and “Unpacking the Future: Important Works by Franz Josef Ponstingl” took place in 2018 at the John F. Peto Studio Museum in Island Heights, N.J. Currently, the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pa., is presenting “Ponstingl: Dreams of Past Futures.” On view through June 20, the exhibition features 25 of the artist’s paintings and 9 of his drawings that date to the 1960s and 1970s.

https://learnmichener.org/uncategorized/franz-jozef-ponstingl-a-surrealist-artist-of-dreams-and-future-realities/

https://www.artandantiquesmag.com/frank-jozef-ponstingl/ See less