Artist Database

Gassner was a European-trained artist whose life and work were shaped by the turbulence of the 20th century. In the years leading up to World War II, he studied at the Reimann Schüle in Berlin, a prominent expressionist art school of the time.

During the war, Gassner was imprisoned in Germany. After his release, he resumed his artistic training in The Hague. In 1948, he emigrated to South Africa, where he held his first exhibition in Cape Town in 1950. He later lived in Brisbane, Australia, during the early 1950s.

Gassner exhibited his work widely across South Africa, as well as in Australia and Brazil, leaving behind a legacy marked by resilience and a deeply expressive visual language.