The draughtsman, graphic artist, painter, and glass-painter Johannes Hewel was from 1993 until his death professor of painting and glass design at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste (State Academy for Fine Arts) in Stuttgart. With his activity as a professor, numerous exhibitions, and many prizes, he provided much momentum for contemporary glass-painting in Germany. He is especially well known for his Huipil Cycle, for he received the Baden-Württemberg state prize in 1976.
Throughout his life he was moved by André Gide’s version of the story of the Prodigal Son, and always carried the little book, of only thirty-seven pages, on the many international trips he undertook between 1962 and 1983.