A Fulbright took him to Paris in 1955, where he worked in Atelier 17, crossed paths with Miró, Chagall, and Giacometti, and had Brancusi and Tinguely as studio neighbors. From there he moved constantly for two decades — the US, Switzerland, France, Germany — restless in a way that seems to have cost him and his family real stability, by his biographer’s account. His Karlsruhe years (1963–67) were significant: he joined the small Jewish community there and made a graphic cycle called “Tor des Todes” (“Gate of Death”) confronting the Holocaust directly. Later, in Basel, he produced the “Mazel Tov Suite,” thirteen large lithographs, and befriended Mark Tobey.

In 1975 he met gallerist Ewald Schrade, who introduced him to Kisslegg and the Allgäu — and in 1976 your father settled permanently in Immenried, staying until his death. He taught at the Winterakademie there from 1975–79, which is also where he met his partner, Ruth Lichti. He died August 12, 1983, in Ravensburg, at 58, reportedly right after finishing a painting.

His style got called a “sensual, passionate festival of color” — rooted in American Action Painting but layered with European Informel and Expressionist gesture. He showed at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, the Musée de l’Art Moderne in Paris, the Deutscher Künstlerbund, Edinburgh Art Festival, and repeatedly at Art Basel starting in 1970. His work is held in the Tate’s collection in London, and the Allgäu remembers him too — there was a retrospective at the Museum Rudolf Wachter in Kisslegg’s Neues Schloss in 2008, and Galerie Schrade still represents his estate.

Hello Sandra!

It looks like you are my aunt through Alwaes Harrison.

He is my grandfather.

Please look at my comments in the Recon area about my Dad, Bill Mueller. I wrote a book about the 286th.

As of 2023, there is exactly one survivor of the battalion, and he is 98. He sent me an email a couple weeks ago.

Tom Mueller
thewisconsin3800@gmil.com

My uncle Charles P. Blankenship served in the 286th co B. I have his mooring reports and have searched and searched and can’t find much as he never spoke about his time in service. Could you send me that letter you have please sir? Thank you.
Jblankenship8625@gmail.com

My grandfather was, T/5 Lawrence A. Hediger-286th Engineer Combat Battalion COA (if that is written correctly). Any information, no matter how limited, I can collect on his days of service would be appreciated very much. Thank you, Michael L. Hediger