Frank Rawer, physician and artist, was born in Strasbourg. He grew up in Saarland and the Odenwald region; at the Odenwald School (near Heppenheim, Bergstrasse), he served as president of the school council, among other things. He received a travel scholarship from the Fondation des Bourses de Zellidja. He graduated with honors. He studied medicine in Frankfurt am Main, including an internship abroad in New York, USA. He passed the state examination (“very good”), received his doctorate (“magna cum laude”), and passed the ECFMG examination in 1971. He trained and continued his medical education (pediatric clinic, surgery, internal medicine, pathology, anesthesiology with helicopter rescue service, and radiology). He is a specialist in internal medicine and a specialist in radiology, specializing in nuclear medicine. He worked for many years as a senior radiologist.
For a long time (over 40 years), however, he has also worked as an artist, with a now extensive body of work, largely outside the art world for many years.
Frank Rawer has also won prizes in several photography competitions and participated in related exhibitions (including the International Book Fair Frankfurt 2000, Photokina Cologne 2004). Frank Rawer is also the author of the poetry collection “Limericks for Travelers” (R.G. Fischer Verlag).
On the occasion of an exhibition, journalist and art historian Ingrid Zehnder (St. Gallen) wrote: “… as a self-taught artist, he has not only achieved astonishing precision and perfection in his craftsmanship, but has also developed a distinctive, independent style in his invention and expressiveness.
Frank Rawer works with a wide variety of materials: wood and plaster, Carrara marble and feathers, gold and sheet metal, precious woods and found objects from nature, canvas and paper. These are not random assemblages, however; the inherent quality of the material always plays a role.
Frank Rawer’s works are original and imaginative; they make allusions and set chains of ideas in motion. Sometimes they are cheerful and witty, ironic and playful, sometimes serious and critical, ambiguous and subtle.”