ROH, Franz

About the photographer, Franz ROH (1890-1965)

Franz ROH studied philosophy, literature, history and art history in Leipzig, Berlin (with Adolph Goldschmidt) and in Basel. From 1916 to 1919 he was assistant to Heinrich Wölfflin at the Art History Department of the University of Munich. In 1920 he received his doctorate under Wölfflin with the thesis 'Dutch Painting of the 17th Century', then he received a teaching position for modern painting in Munich. At this time he exhibited his own photo collages for the first time. He wrote reviews for the magazines Cicerone and Das Kunstblatt, after the war for the US-American Neue Zeitung, which appeared in Munich, and for Radio Munich. This work brought him into closer contact with contemporary artists such as George Grosz, Kurt Schwitters, Willi Baumeister and Max Ernst.

In 1925, ROH published the book 'Post-Expressionism - Magical Realism: Problems of Recent European Painting', which examined the European styles of the post-Expressionist era. ROH introduced the term magical realism with his work. In 1933 he was taken into protective custody for a few months in the Dachau concentration camp because of his commitment to degenerate art, and he lost his position at the university.

In 1946 he married the art historian Juliane Bartsch, who ran the Mannheimer Kunstverein until 1937 and who, under the name Juliane Roh, was to become one of the most important art writers in post-war Germany. Franz ROH's book 'The Misunderstood Artist: Studies on the History and Theory of Cultural Misunderstanding', which he began during the Second World War, was published in 1948. In the same year he resumed his teaching position at the newly opened Munich University. In 1952, ROH founded the first German Artothek in Berlin, an art rental agency that became a model for many others in Germany.
In 1958 his 'History of German Art from 1900 to the Present' was published by Bruckmann in Munich. In 1961 he had his first exhibition of his collages with Otto Stangl, and in 1962 his book 'Degenerate Art - Kunstbarbarei im Third Reich' was published by Fackelträger, Hanover. The Parnass Gallery in Wuppertal showed a second exhibition of his collages under the title Metamorphoses - Objective Collages." (Source: wikipedia, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Roh)

Photo books by and about Franz ROH

'foto-auge' (Katalogband, 2002)