John-Franklin Koenig

John-Franklin Koenig (1924 — 2008) was an American artist associated with abstract painting. Primarily a painter and collagist, he worked in a modern, non-representational style and was part of the postwar Paris art scene. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Second World War, he settled in Paris.

There, he met Jean-Robert Arnaud, who at the time ran a bookshop, and the two formed both a personal and professional partnership. Through artistic circles, he also met Ellsworth Kelly and, together with Jack Youngerman and Georges Koskas, encouraged Arnaud and Koenig to transform the basement of the bookshop on rue du Regard into an exhibition space.

In early 1950, Arnaud and Koenig relocated this initiative to rue du Four, where they established Galerie Arnaud, which soon became an important venue for young abstract artists in Paris. In 1951, Kelly held his first solo exhibition at the gallery.

In 1953, Koenig and Arnaud co-founded the art review Cimaise, further contributing to the development of postwar abstract discourse in Paris.