FRANK JOEST
Frank Joest’s formal art training began when attended Music and Art High School in N.Y. and the Academy of Creative Arts, Karisruhe, Germany to study Graphic Design. He received his Pedagogic Degree from the University of Creative Arts, Berlin, Germany. Joest taught art in Berlin, Washington, D.C. Miami, Fla. And the Poconos.
He owned and operated an Art Gallery in Rockville, MD.
He has exhibited his art throughout Europe and the USA. Joest received a Fellowship to paint in Venice, Italy. He created an 18 foot metal sculpture to honor Prof. Whitenight. It stands outside the Koehler Fieldhouse at ESU. His one-man exhibits have been in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, Florida, Italy and German cities.
Joest has spent his life working in painting, graphics, sculpture and pottery. He started Papercutting in 1987.
Joest is a juried member in Papercutting of the PA. Guild of Craftsmen. Contact Joest at omarjet@ptd.net.
Papercutting
Paper was invented around 115 AD in China. This was the beginning of the art of Papercutting. People from the 10th century decorated thier windows, house doors, lantern, chests, etc,. Mythological figures were cut out of silk paper.
Papercutting arrived in Austria from China in the 16 century and spread thoughout Europe. German Papercuts were mainly Devotional. They wer cut out in silhouette form. The silhouette word is derived from Mr. Etiene de Silhouette, a 18 century french finance minister. He was miserly to the poor, and his hobby was cutting portraits out of paper, so his name enter the language as a la silhouette, which meant getting a portrait done the cheap way.
The PA. Dutch were not from the Netherlands. They were from southern Germany and Switzerland.
Papercutting spread to poland in the 1800's.
Today this folk art is still practised in many countries around the world.
Matisse expressed it best "papercutting is drawing with a knife."