Egon Pruggmayer

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Postage stamp for the Leipzig Spring Fair 1951, designed by Egon Pruggmayer

Egon Pruggmayer (born February 11, 1905 in Dresden , † November 24, 1983 in Leipzig ) was a German book designer , painter , draftsman and illustrator . He was a professor at the University of Graphics and Book Art in Leipzig. With his book layouts and book designs, he played a significant role in the development of book art in the GDR .

Life

Pruggmayer grew up in Dresden and studied at the city art academy from 1922 . He also attended the art academies in Vienna , Weimar and Leipzig . He was a student of Paul Klee at the State Bauhaus in Weimar . He worked as an illustrator at an early age and illustrated numerous books, as well as book covers and advertising material, especially for the Leipzig publisher L. Staackmann . There appeared, among others, German style guide of Ludwig Grote for which he drew the pictures. Later other Leipzig publishers became aware of him and he began his activities for Insel Verlag , which was mainly known for its artistically designed book covers, for Felix Meiner Verlag , Reclam and the Dieterich'sche Verlagbuchhandlung .

After the end of the Second World War , Egon Pruggmayer was professor of graphics at the State Academy for Graphic Arts and Book Industry in Leipzig from 1946 , today's HGB . He taught there from 1947 to 1951, among others, Wolfgang Mattheuer , one of the later pioneers of the Leipzig School . Paul Zimmermann and Andreas Brylka were also among his students . In the GDR, the illustration of a literary text or a cover played a very important role in book production and art, and this is why such artists enjoyed a good reputation. The publishers also had a special interest in this art form, but Pruggmayer's predilection for graphic design from the prewar period was classified as too “formalistic” and “out of date”, and this contradicted the officially propagated real socialist art . And yet Pruggmayer survived the purges in 1951 in the course of the formalism debate at the Leipzig Art Academy. He was able to take part in the 1952 German Book Art Exhibition in Leipzig, which was organized by the State Commission for Art Affairs, together with Hans H. Bockwitz , Julius Rodenberg and Erich Schwanecke. In addition, Pruggmayer took part in the International Book Art Exhibition in Leipzig in 1959 and in the GDR Book Art Exhibition in 1969, which took place in the " International Exhibition Pavilion " in Berlin's Friedrichstrasse .

In 1971 the picture ABC appeared . For each letter of the alphabet, the book shows, strictly stylized, objects from the imagination of children ( e.g. P for horse ). It was only possible to produce it in close cooperation with the cliché manufacturer , printer , bookbinder and publisher. With the ABC of Pictures, Egon Pruggmayer wanted to show the viewer the possibilities of printing and bookbinding technology "in the last detail". The limited edition work measures 3 mm × 2.5 mm, making it the smallest edition printed book in the world to this day . His last work was the multicolored print Meditation , this shows muddled forms that are far removed from his once precise forms. This work was also the subject of the meeting of the European Society for Neurochemistry (ESN) in Leipzig in 2009.

Egon Pruggmayer died after a long period of Alzheimer's disease on November 24, 1983 at the age of 78 in the " District Hospital for Psychiatry Leipzig-Dosen ".

Student (selection)

Works (selection)

  • Elaborately designed capital letters

  • Vignette for a dust jacket, 1965 (IA Gontscharow: An everyday story)

  • The 24 letters of the alphabet, letter M.

  • Vignette for a dust jacket (Defoe, Robinson Crusoe)

  • Postage stamp for the Leipzig Spring Fair 1951 in a blue version

photos

  • Meditation , 1983 [2]

In works:

  • The festive year. Poems , Johannes Linke , woodcuts and cover by Egon Pruggmayer. Verlag Aufstieg, Leipzig, 1928
  • Of rascals and good people - A book of anecdotes , Heinrich E. Kromer, paperback, 1934
  • Almanac for the year 1937 , L. Staackmann, Leipzig, 1936
  • The Angel's Message , Hartmann, W. G, A Christmas Legend, First Edition, Leipzig, 1936
  • German style guide , Ludwig Grote , 1937
  • Occidental architecture - a building history in examples , Denis Boniver , Staackmann Verlag, Leipzig, 1940

Print graphics

  • Pictures ABC , Edition Leipzig, 1971

(incomplete)

Fonts (selection)

  • Wiederkehr des Ornaments , April 1953, pp. 50–55
  • Writing and ornament in Merseburg Cathedral , May 1953, pp. 81–4
  • On the question of relief embossing , July 1953, pp. 109–11.
  • Dust jackets , Leipzig, 1965 [3]

Web links

literature

  • Erich Schwanecke, The Book Artist Egon Pruggmayer , Marginalien, 1970, Vol. 39, pp. 1-7
  • Archives for the book trade and commercial graphics, young German book artists , Leipzig, German Book Trade Association , Nov. 1934, p. 707

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ German style guide of Grote and Pruggmayer. In: German National Library . Retrieved February 6, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Paul Zimmermann -Werksdokumentation. Retrieved February 6, 2020 .
  3. ^ Egon Pruggmayer - Sacred Art Pilgrims Collection. Retrieved February 6, 2020 .
  4. ^ Catalog for the German Book Art Exhibition in Leipzig in 1952
  5. ^ Archives of the New Germany. Neues Deutschland , May 29, 1969, p. 8 , archived from the original ; Retrieved on February 6, 2020 (German, incomplete, unchanged original quote): " The exhibition" Book Art of the German Democratic Republic "was opened on Tuesday in Berlin in the International Exhibition Pavilion at Friedrichstrasse station by the chairman of the central graphics section in the Association of Visual Artists, Prof. Hans Baltzer, opened Among the almost 200 guests who attended the opening were the Deputy Minister of Culture Bruno Haid and the 1 ... "
  6. ↑ Picture ABC on booklooker
  7. ↑ Meditation (1983) [1]
  8. ^ Vita - Opal artist group. Retrieved February 6, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Reiner Richter: Sonja Wunderlich - Master of pictorial symbols. Leipziger Volkszeitung , February 10, 2014, accessed on February 6, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Pruggmayer, Egon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German book artist, illustrator, painter, graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 1983
Place of death Leipzig