BÔ YIN RÂ
The German painter and author Bô Yin Râ was known in his civil life as Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken. Through his paintings and his series of spiritual textbooks Hortus conclusus, he conveyed insights into the metaphysical structures of eternal spiritual reality.
1876 Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken was born on November 25, 1876 in Aschaffenburg as Joseph Anton Schneider *.
1880 moved to Frankfurt/Main. Until 1890 he attended the Merianschule elementary school in Frankfurt/Main.
1890-1892 labour at factory with lathes and vice;
1892-1895 studies at Städel Art Institute in Frankfurt;
1895-1898 one and a half years of free tuition with the German painter Hans Thoma in Frankfurt; work as
a scene painter at the City Theater of Frankfurt.
1899 completion of his studies at the Städel master workshop;
1900-1902 further training as a painter at the k.k Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, in Munich, and later at
the Académie Julian in Paris.
1903 again visiting the academy in Vienna; married to Irma Schönfeld from Vienna;
1904-1908 Berlin; 1905 meeting with the German artist Max Klinger in Leipzig; 1906 publications of two cycles
of pen-and-ink drawings at Berlin publishing houses; Exhibitions in Leipzig; first trip to Italy; 1908 trip to Kullen (Kattegat, Sweden).
1909-1912 Munich;
1912-1913 stay in Greece.
1913 first extracts of Hortus conclusus with initials B.Y.R.
1913-1915 Munich; 1915 death of his wife due to diabetes.
1915-1916 Berlin; 1915 exhibition of a collection of Greek landscapes at Schulte Gallery, Berlin.
1916-1917 administrative services in Königsberg by military draft;
1917-1923 Görlitz; 1917/1918 drafted into military service as a translator for interned Greek nationals in Görlitz; 1918 married to war widow Helene Hoffmann, who had two children from a previous marriage. 1919 Daughter Devadatti is born; also in 1919 the Book Of The Living God (Buch vom Lebendigen Gott) is published by Kurt Wolff at 'Verlag der Weißen Bücher' (White Books publishing house) in Munich; 1919-1921 Chairman of the Lusatian Art Association in Görlitz and 1920 foundation of the 'Jacob Böhme Association' (Jakob-Böhme-Bund), an association of painters; in Görlitz he completed the painting cycle Worlds (Welten), which is part of the
Hortus conclusus;
three public exhibitions in Görlitz, in 1921 for the first time with the spiritual paintings
Worlds.
1923 moved to Horgen on Lake Zurich in Switzerland.
1925 moved to Massagno near Lugano in Ticino, Switzerland.
Since 1927 the Hortus conclusus is published by KoberVerlag AG in Bern, Switzerland.
1936 Hortus conclusus, the final volume of the spiritual textbook, was published.
1938 the Schneiderfranken family received the Swiss citizenship of the community of Massagno in Ticino.
Joseph Anton Schneiderfranken died on February 14, 1943.
* Because of the very common name Schneider, he signed his paintings early on with Schneider-Franken or Schneiderfranken. (He came from Franconia). In August 1920, his name Schneiderfranken has been officially registered and confirmed. About his spiritual name
Bô Yin Râ he talks in the books Concerning My Name and Letters To One And Many.