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About

Frank Pannier born in Florida in 1946, grew up in Brazil and Argentina, attended American schools where his father worked overseas. From the time he could hold a pencil, he began drawing. At 16, he moved to Chicago to live with his uncle, fellow artist and mentor, Herbert Pannier. He studied art at the University of Illinois Chicago Circle campus. Dedicating his life to creating abstract art, he had 60 exhibitions in Chicago in the 1970's.

 

Large diamond-shaped canvases, painted concurrently, in a series devoted to one subject matter, are typical of his art. Often the subject was Chicago architecture, or encompassed architectural elements in the structure of the paintings. A series could be up to a dozen canvases of similar shape, technique and color palette. He layered a myriad of colors of acrylic paint, rendering his art three dimensional. Pannier also stretched canvas over wood blocks giving it depth, and making it structurally similar to architectural design.

 

 

A mostly ignored Chicago abstract painter, he has just one painting hanging publicly in Chicago. "Ahrinsko" has hung at Blackies on Clark street ever since it settled a bar tab.In Chicago at 50, Pannier lost his life long struggle with alcoholism, never realizing his dream to relocate to New York where he believed his art would find acceptance. Five years after his death, his work was shown in New York in an exhibit overshadowed by the tragedy of September 11th.

 

He is best known for the controversial articles he wrote in the "New Art Examiner" in 1974. "A Painter Reviews Chicago, Part 1 and 2." These were re-published in 2011 in "The Essential New Art Examiner."

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