VALE JÖRG SCHMEISSER

We acknowledge, with regret, the passing of a great printmaker.

1.6.2012 JÖRG SCHMEISSER died peacefully in the presence of his family. Loving husband of Keiko. Loving father to Aya and Taë. Loving grandfather to Hannah, Emiko and Hugo.

German born printmaker Jörg Schmeisser has a long established international reputation as a master of his medium. An expert in etching and a keen observer, Jörg has an extensive oeuvre of intaglio print works, his range of markmaking imbuing the subject matter with a poignant expressive power. Characterised by extraordinary rendering of detail overlaid by gestural lines and script, his works also show passages of abstracted, hard edge motifs that reference processes of decay and passing time. Jörg is a voracious traveller who has worked in the Middle East, Europe, South East Asia, the United States and Japan. Many of his works have the feel of a visual diary, recording the foreign places, cultures and traditions that he has experienced. Grand landscape narratives are often interposed with keenly studied images of flora and fauna as Jörg synthesises and contextualises the elements of his visual experience as a memoir. 

Jörg Schmeisser has held over 200 exhibitions, both in Australia and overseas, since he began his tertiary studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg, Germany under the acclaimed teacher Paul Wunderlich. His work is represented in many of the world’s most notable collections including the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Museum of Modern Art in New York, Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, Germany, Staatliche Sammlungen Dresden, Germany, Museum fur Ostasiatische Kunst in Cologne,Germany and the National Gallery of America. In Australia, his work is held in all of the major state galleries as well as the National Gallery of Australia.