Fritz Harnest
Photo: Joseph Harnest, 1970
Born	(1905-08-16)16 August 1905 Munich, Germany
Died	28 January 1999(1999-01-28) (aged 93) Traunstein, Germany
Nationality	German
Known for	Painting, Woodcut

Fritz Harnest (1905 in Munich, Germany – 1999 in Traunstein, Germany), was a German painter, printmaker and collage artist. He was a creator of abstract modern art in Germany after World War II.^[1]

Biography

Harnest studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich from 1921 to 1929. He travelled frequently to France in 1930–1931 with the German painter Otto Baumann [de].^[2] He ceased painting after the Nazi seizure of power but later resumed his career, creating woodcuts and murals. From 1940 to 1945 he worked as an interpreter in Stalag VII-A in Moosburg. In 1959 he was a participant of II. documenta in Kassel.

Art in public space

• 
  Colored window in the stairwell of the Technical University of Munich.^[3]
• 
  Ceramics on the walls of a stairwell in the tax office at Säckingen (with Richard Bampi [de]).^[4]

Honours

• 1961: 2nd prize at the „II. Internationalen Triennale Grenchen“ for colored original graphics, Switzerland
• 1969: medal of honor at the “Triennale Internazionale della Xilographia Contemporanea Capri”, Italy
• 1996: Bundesverdienstkreuz der Bundesrepublik Deutschland