The German painter, designer, printmaker, and draftsman Friedrich Meckseper was born on June 8, 1936 in Bremen, Germany. He spent his childhood in Stuttgart and did an apprenticeship as a mechanic at Robert Bosch GmbH from 1952 until 1955. In the year he started at Bosch, he began his course of studies, first at the State Academy for Visual Arts in Stuttgart under Professor Karl Rössing. He continued his studies at the College for Visual Arts in Berlin from 1957 until 1959 under Professor Wolf Hoffmann.

Meckseper's first engravings were completed during this time. In 1963, he received the German Rome Prize from Villa Massimo; in 1965, he received a culture circle stipend from the Association of German Industry; in 1970, he was honored with the prize of the 7th Biennial Exhibition of Prints in Tokyo. He was influenced in his artistic works by Anton Heyoer, Bosch, Leonardo, Saul Steinberg, and Hamaguchi, among others. He created oilprints, engravings, collages, and objects which produce a mysterious tension in the observer.

The minimalistic arrangement of objects in his works is supported by his technical precision, and the detailed gears and springs one finds in his works provide insight into his broader interest in technology and the physical sciences. For examples, in 1972, he designed and built a steamboat and he crossed the Alps in a hot air balloon in 1979, '80, '82 and '86. He was a guest professor at the Bergische Universitat in Wuppertal, Germany in 1977 and 1978 and took over the engraving class from 1977 until 1979.

Meckseper was honored at the 6th Norwegian International Print Biennale in Fredrikstad in 1982 and received the prize of the First and Second International Kochi Triennial Exibition of Prints in Japan in 1990 and 1993. From 1961 until moving to Berlin in 1984, Meckseper lived and worked in the artist colony of Worpswede. Friedrich Meckseper died on June 5, 2019 in Berlin, Germany. An online archive of his work can be found here.

Biography from Ketterer Kunst and other sources.