John Franklin Koenig, born in Seattle, Washington, in 1924, has made his home on two continents. Despite an enduring love for the West Coast of the United States, centered on the seacoast, mountains, and forests surrounding Seattle, he has lived in Europe for a large portion of his life. He moved to Paris in 1948 and resided there until 1979. Today he maintains homes in both countries.

He has studied literature, music and romance languages in the United States and at the Sorbonne in Paris. An interest in Asian art, developed during earlier visits to the Seattle Art Museum, led to numerous trips to Japan in order to grasp more fully the cultural influence on style and presentation.

Koenig began exhibiting his work in 1952. Working primarily in collages, he produced geometric designs dominated by square form. His inspiration was drawn from nature, music, and dance. A change of style emerged in the 1960s when he began using gouache to produce texture and form in his collage-like paintings.

Recognized perhaps even more widely in Europe than in the United States, Koenig has works found in prestigious museums throughout the world. He has had over 150 one-man shows, including an important retrospective at the Paris Art center in 1989. In 1959, he was awarded the Prix Critiques Art de Presse Parisienne at the First Biennale in Paris, and in 1986, he was named Officer de l'Ordre des Arts et es Lettres in France. He has also been artist-in-residence in Istanbul in 1976 at the School of Applied Arts.


Sources:
Sonia Kazanjian, 1997
Museum of Northwest Art http://www.museumofnwart.org/
Who's Who in American Art, 2003-2004
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Note submitted March 2004 by James Justin Brown:
The Non United States Museums for John Franklin Koenig are:

Musee de Saint-Etienne
Bibliotheque National, Paris
Centro National d'Art Contemporarian, Paris
Museum of Modern Art in Paris
Museum of Modern Art in Paris
Pompidue Center, Paris
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon
National Gallery of Iceland
Musee de Grenoble
Museo de Arte Contemporarian, Venice
Salzburg Museum
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Museum of Western Art, Tokyo
Verviers Art Museum, Belgium