Axel Bertram

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Axel Bertram (born March 26, 1936 in Dresden ; † March 16, 2019 in Berlin ) was a German medalist , commercial artist, illustrator, type designer and publicist.

life and work

Axel Bertram was born in Dresden and grew up as the son of a merchant family in Freital . After graduating from high school, he worked as a technical draftsman for a year and studied commercial graphics from 1955 to 1960 at the University of Applied Arts in Berlin-Weißensee under Klaus Wittkugel and Werner Klemke . Since graduating, he has worked as a freelance graphic designer. In 1960 he and three fellow students founded the group 4 studio community in Berlin , of which he was a member until 1972. The group quickly became known through work such as the graphic redesign for the Berlin Metropol Theater . In 1972 he was appointed lecturer at the Kunsthochschule Weißensee, where he was a full professor for type and graphic design from 1977 to 1986 and 1989 to 1992. From 1961 to 1990 he was a member of the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR , from 1970 he was a member of its central board and from 1988 to 1989 its vice-president. From 1982 to 1990 he was head of the artistic advisory board of the State Bank of the GDR .

Bertram designed numerous books, newspapers and magazines, including the magazine for fashion and culture Sibylle , the Neue Berliner Illustrierte , the failed GDR news magazine Profil and the Wochenpost , for which he first introduced a magazine layout with a margin column in 1970. In 1969 he designed the 20-pfennig piece and a 5-mark circulation coin of the GDR as well as the 1- and 2- mark pieces of the second series with Rudi Högner , from 1966 to 1982 numerous commemorative coins for the State Bank of the GDR, a. a. for Johannes Gutenberg (1968), Albrecht Dürer (1971), Johannes Kepler (1971) and Johannes Brahms (1972), and in 2006 a commemorative coin for Karl Friedrich Schinkel for the Deutsche Bundesbank .

Screen font FF Videtur.

As a typeface designer, in addition to design typefaces for magazines such as Sibylle and Neue Berliner Illustrierte, types for typewriters, the television font Videtur , which was specially developed for screens in 1986, and the OpenType font Rabenau Pro . As a calligrapher, he turned against artistic endeavors and campaigned for the revival of the old writing culture that served to convey text before Gutenberg and published editions of the book Suleika from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's West-Eastern Divan and the Song of Solomon from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's West-Eastern Divan and the Song of Solomon from all pen-pen the Old Testament in Martin Luther's translation , which, despite its bibliophile character, reached print runs of up to 10,000 copies. In 2003 an edition of the book of Job followed , which he set with self-designed fonts and equipped with his own illustrations.

In addition to his artistic work, Bertram wrote essays on the history and theory of graphic design, essays on the design of everyday culture and numerous portraits of designers. In 2004, as a result of his decades of preoccupation with the history of writing, he published a cultural history of printing from the Gutenberg era under the title “The Well-Tempered Alphabet”.

With his diverse artistic and journalistic work, Bertram was one of the most influential German designers of the post-war period. His legacy is kept in the German Museum of Books and Writing in the German National Library .

Axel Bertram was married to the fashion journalist Dorothea Bertram (later: Melis) from 1958 to 1961 , with whom he has a son. Since 1963 he was married to the photographer Ruth Bertram.

Designs (in selection)

20 pfennig coin of the GDR
Signet of the 10th World Festival of Youth and Students 1973
  • 1961–1965 Design of the Roman newspaper of the Volk und Welt publishing house from No. 151 to No. 193 (42 issues)
  • 1962–1965 redesign of the Neue Berliner Illustrierte (NBI)
  • 1965–1968 redesign of the fashion journal Sibylle
  • 1966–1982 design of commemorative coins for the State Bank of the GDR
  • 1969–1970 Design of the title of the youth magazine Neues Leben (12 issues)
  • 1969 Design of the 20 Pfennig and 5 Mark circulation coins
  • 1969–1972 redesign of the weekly newspaper Wochenpost , graphic consultant and designer of numerous front pages until 1992
  • 1972 Development of the graphic constants for the Xth World Festival of Youth and Students in Berlin
  • 1976–1978 design of the typewriter fonts Venezia and Lutezia
  • 1979–1981 design of several stamp series for Deutsche Post
  • 1980 Design of writing sample sheets for the training of lettering and poster painters
  • 1982–1984 Publication and design of calligraphic books
  • 1982–1986 Development of the screen font Videtur for the television of the GDR
  • 1992–2002 book designs, photographs and illustrations for Gustav Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach
  • 1995–1996 redesign of the daily newspaper Neues Deutschland
  • 1997 Design concept for the exhibition Die Franken - Le Francs for the National Museums in Berlin (together with Hanka Polkehn)
  • 1999–2002 design of exhibitions, posters and catalogs for the Berlin State Library
  • 2011 Publication of the Antiqua-Werkschrift Rabenau Pro as an opentype font with 16 weights in the Linotype Library (together with Andreas Frohloff)
  • 2012 Redevelopment or further development of the GDR TV screen font Videtur (together with Andreas Frohloff)

Exhibitions

With group 4 :

Solo exhibitions:

  • Art Academy Berlin, 1973.
  • Art Academy Berlin, 1982.
  • Berlin studio, Berlin 1983.
  • Font art , Galerie im Turm, Berlin, 1986.
  • Weekly mail. Title drawings from two decades , Galerie du vin, Berlin, 1990.
  • stations , Book and Writing Museum of the German Library, Leipzig , 2001.
  • Bad Schmiedeberg , 2003.
  • Scriptum , Galerie Schauß, Bernau , 2006.
  • Visual messages , Weimar City Library , 2008.
  • Time sign , Kultur- und Festspielhaus Wittenberge , 2009.

Awards

  • 1977 Art Prize of the GDR
  • numerous awards in the categories "Most Beautiful Books", "Most Beautiful Dust Jackets" and "Best Posters"

Publications

Monographs and Editions

  • Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Book of Suleika from the West-Eastern Divan. [Edited by Axel Bertram.] Berlin: Verlag der Nation, 1982, 2nd edition 1984.
  • The Song of Solomon. Collection of old Hebrew love and wedding poetry translated by Martin Luther. Written by pen and all kinds of comments by Axel Bertram. Berlin: Verlag der Nation, 1983.
  • Axel Bertram: writing sample folder. Published by DEWAG General Management. [Edited by Andreas Frohloff and Harald Larisch.] DEWAG, 1987.
  • Axel Bertram: The well-tempered alphabet. 26 masters of writing from six centuries. Berlin: Verlag der Nation, 1989.
  • The Book of Job. After the translation by Martin Luther with the marginalia himself and comparative notes from the revised text from 1964. Edited, designed and provided with 68 scrapbooks by Axel Bertram. Leipzig: Faber & Faber, 2003.
  • Axel Bertram: The well-tempered alphabet. A cultural story. Leipzig: Faber & Faber, 2004, 3rd edition 2005.

Essays (in selection)

  • Reproduction and original. In: Sibylle, No. 1/1965, p. 56.
  • À la mode or the art of dressing. In: Sibylle, No. 6/1967, pp. 12-17.
  • About dealing with images (1). In: Das Magazin, No. 1/1970, pp. 34–37.
  • About dealing with images (2). In: Das Magazin, No. 2/1970, pp. 34–36.
  • About dealing with images (3). In: Das Magazin, No. 4/1970, pp. 49–53.
  • Lively usage form. In: Das Magazin, No. 1/1972, pp. 48–52.
  • Art for everyday life. The poster has a rich past - does it have a future? In: Wochenpost, No. 20/1972, p. 18.
  • Good, beautiful, "most beautiful books". In: Wochenpost, No. 30/1972, p. 15.
  • Commercial art today. In: Neue Werbung, No. 1/1979, pp. 21–23.
  • Thinking about commercial art. In: Bildende Kunst, No. 6/1980, pp. 264–268.
  • Scripture to last? [About architecture and writing.] In: Neue Werbung, No. 6/1981, pp. 3–5.
  • About us. Nine Unscientific Claims and One Note. In: Neue Werbung, No. 5/1982, pp. 18-19
  • Expedition into theory. In: Form und Zweck, No. 1/1984, 11–13.
  • The second look. About the encounter with commercial graphics. In: Wochenpost, No. 37/1982, pp. 14–15.
  • The drawing in commercial art. In: Bildende Kunst, No. 9/1985, 391–395.
  • Notes on the screen font Videtur. In: Neue Werbung, No. 4/1986, pp. 6-10.
  • The limits of the original. In: Neue Werbung, No. 5/1983, pp. 36–37.
  • Writing in the book. In: Worth booking. Notes on book-making. Edited and with explanatory texts by Hans-Joachim Schauß. Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1988, pp. 74–81.
  • May, should, must read. Reflections on the Book. In: Wochenpost, No. 29/1989, pp. 14–15.
  • Encounter of the new kind. In: Art Directors Club for Germany. Yearbook 1990. Düsseldorf, 1990, pp. 626–654.
  • On the anachronism of old reading culture. Lecture at the 1997 meeting of the Association of Publishing Manufacturers in Irsee. In: Marginalien, No. 150/1998, pp. 49-74.
  • Idylls, ideals, illusions. Some design ideas in the sixties. In: Sibylle. Fashion photography from three decades of the GDR. Edited by Dorothea Melis. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 1998, pp. 64-77.
  • From “Wasser-Heften” and “Männer-Magazinen”. From the conversation with Ursula Hertel and Axel Bertram. Moderation: Dietrich Mühlberg. In: Between “mosaic” and “unity”. Magazines in the GDR. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 1999, pp. 77-90.
  • Graphic role play. In: Werner Klemke. 1917-1994. A booklet accompanying the exhibition at the Berlin State Library. Staatsbibliothek, Berlin 1999, pp. 37–45.
  • Image print of Botticelli's miniature signatures after their rediscovery in 1882. In: Dante's Divine Comedy. Prints and Illustrators from Six Centuries. Edited by Lutz S. Malke. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin 2000, pp. 45–62.
  • Jan Tschichold - what remains. For the 100th birthday. In: Marginalien, No. 167/2002, pp. 3-16.
  • From Schinkel to Schinkel. An experience report. In: Erfurt Münzblätter. Volume XI / XII., Yearbook 2003/2004. Erfurt: Erfurter Münzfreunde e. V., 2010, pp. 113-138.

literature

Catalogs and monographs

  • Axel Bertram. Commercial graphics in socialism. Publishing house for agitation and visual media, Berlin 1984.
  • Axel Bertram: Font – Art. Exhibition in the gallery in the tower from April 4 to 26, 1986. Association of Visual Artists of the GDR, Berlin 1986.
  • Axel Bertram. In: Alfred Kapr (ed.): Calligraphic expressions. About calligraphy in the German Democratic Republic. VEB Fachbuchverlag, Leipzig 1988, pp. 33–42.
  • Axel Bertram: Interim balance. Graphics & graphic design. Berlin: private print, 1994.
  • Axel Bertram: stations commercial graphics from four decades. German Library, Leipzig 2001.
  • Axel Bertram. Graphic design in five decades. Edited, introduced and commented on by Mathias Bertram in collaboration with the New Culture Foundation and the German Museum of Books and Writing of the German National Library. Lehmstedt, Leipzig 2012.

Essays on the work (selection)

  • Klaus Werner: X. World Festival - visual design. In: Neue Werbung, No. 2/1974, pp. 9–11.
  • Hellmut Rademacher: Axel Bertram. Artist, teacher, functionary. In: Neue Werbung, No. 6/1974, pp. 28–33 [with 30 illustrations].
  • Wolfgang Steguweit with Elke Bannicke and Gerhard Schön: The GDR commemorative coins and their creators. Münzhandlung Dr. Busso Peus Nachf., Frankfurt am Main 2000, pp. 15-21.
  • Hanka Polkehn: Romantic and rational. Axel Bertram for his 65th birthday on March 26th. In: Marginalien, No. 161/2001, pp. 20-28.
  • Lothar Poethe: Nine Incomplete Notes. In: Axel Bertram: stations commercial graphics from four decades. Deutsche Bücherei, Leipzig 2001, pp. 2–11.
  • Martin Z. Schröder: Full profit of his life. Suleika made a contribution for Axel Bertram. The graphic artist in Leipzig. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, August 1, 2001, p. 53.
  • Sylke Wunderlich: Axel Bertram - commercial graphics from four decades. In: Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel, No. 70/2001, August 31, 2001, pp. 465–467.

Web links

Commons : Axel Bertram  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The most influential commercial artist in the GDR has died. In: Leipziger Volkszeitung. March 17, 2019, accessed March 17, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Axel Bertram - designer of magazines and bibliophile collector's items. In: "Signs - Books - Networks". German Museum of Books and Writing , accessed on May 19, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Bertram, Axel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH 16th March 2019
Place of death Berlin