Günter Fruhtrunk was a German painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 and printmaker, who is classified as a geometric abstract art

Geometric abstract art

Geometric abstraction is a form of abstract art based on the use of geometric forms sometimes, though not always, placed in non-illusionistic space and combined into non-objective compositions...

ist and whose work relates to Op Art

Op art

Op art, also known as optical art, is a style of visual art that makes use of optical illusions."Optical art is a method of painting concerning the interaction between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and seeing." Op art works are abstract, with many of the better known pieces made...

.

Fruhtrunk studied architecture at the 'Technische Hochschule' in Munich, which he gave up after two semesters to join the army as a volunteer in the fall of 1941. In 1945, Fruhtrunk began to study privately under the painter and printmaker William Straube in Neufrach, who was a student of Hölzel and Matisse. In 1954 he received a scholarship from the Land Baden-Württemberg and the Gouvernement Français and moved to Paris, to work in the studios of Léger

Léger

Léger is a surname, and may refer to:* Alexis Leger – French poet and diplomat* Fernand Léger – French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker* Jules Léger – Governor General of Canada * Louis Léger – French writer and pioneer in Slavic studies...

 and Arp

Jean Arp

Jean Arp / Hans Arp was a German-French, or Alsatian, sculptor, painter, poet and abstract artist in other media such as torn and pasted paper....

. During the 1960s the painter mainly lived and worked in France. In 1961 he received the Prix Jean Arp

Jean Arp

Jean Arp / Hans Arp was a German-French, or Alsatian, sculptor, painter, poet and abstract artist in other media such as torn and pasted paper....

 in Cologne and in 1966 he was awarded the silver medal of the Prix d'Europe in Ostende. In 1963 he appeared in the film documentary "School of Paris: (5 Artists at Work)" by American filmmaker Warren Forma

Warren Forma

Warren Forma is an American filmmaker and author, best known for his "Artists at Work" documentary film series and book on European and American painters and sculptors in the 1960s and 1970s, his 1973 novel The Falling Man, which contrasts the violence of 1920's Ireland and 1940's Harlem, New...

. In 1967, Fruhtrunk began teaching at the Munich art academy. It was Fruhtrunk who transformed the ideas of Constructivism

Constructivism (art)

Constructivism was an artistic and architectural philosophy that originated in Russia beginning in 1919, which was a rejection of the idea of autonomous art. The movement was in favour of art as a practice for social purposes. Constructivism had a great effect on modern art movements of the 20th...

to a colorful rhythmical pictorial world, by creating a dynamic language of form with vector-like diagonal lines arranged strictly rhythmically according to their alternating colors. Fruhtrunk committed suicide in his studio at the Munich art academy on December 12, 1982.