Erich Henschel

Erich Henschel (born April 22, 1907 in Görlitz , † October 16, 1984 in Löwenstein - Hirrweiler ) was a German artist .

Life

From 1927 to 1930 he studied at the State Art Academy in Königsberg in the class of Professors Burmann and Marten. Then he was in Joost Schmidt's class for printing and advertising at the Bauhaus in Dessau , where he met his partner, the textile artist Ruth Henschel , née. Josefek (1904–1982), and received his diploma in 1933. The couple married in 1934 and settled in Würzburg , but moved to Königsberg in 1935, where Henschel was the artistic director of the German East Fair and planned special and educational shows, while his wife ran her own textile art studio. In addition to the Ostmesse, Henschel also worked as a graphic designer for companies such as Ducolux and Schering . In 1941 he was called up for military service in the Air Force. In the last months of the war he was stationed in Crailsheim , where his wife followed him on the escape from Königsberg. After returning from brief captivity , Henschel first tried to gain a foothold in Munich , but in 1947 the couple settled in Löwenstein - Hirrweiler , where he was freelance in the field of graphic and object design. He also worked as an art teacher in Lichtenstern . He was a member of the Heilbronn Artists' Association .

plant

The design work of Erich Henschel from the time before the Second World War includes the exhibition design for the German East Fair and graphic work for Ducolux and Schering. In the post-war period, he initially created graphic work and exhibition stand construction for NSU Motorenwerke , the Heilbronn-based food manufacturer Knorr and the Weipert company, which is also based there. From 1958 a long-term collaboration began with the deaconess parent company in Gunzenhausen and with the scale manufacturer Soehnle in Murrhardt . For the deaconesses in Gunzenhausen, in addition to art in construction (concrete glass windows in the deaconess mother house, in the kindergarten and in the municipal retirement home of Gunzenhausen, in the deaconess ballroom in Berlin as well as in the after-work house and in the cemetery chapel in Büchelberg ) he also created sacred objects. He created other art in architecture a. a. for the holiday home in Mosbach , the retirement and nursing home in Brackenheim and the district office in Heilbronn . His work for Soehnle, in addition to advertising campaigns and product design, especially his design of the company logo, which was used from 1961, also reached a broader public.

The style of Henschel's entire oeuvre is based on the reduced formal language taught at the Bauhaus. Much of his work, both objects and graphics, is composed of simple geometric patterns. His free works, such as the material image Static-Dynamic , often consist of colorless materials with smooth surfaces such as Plexiglas or plaster, which underline the reduced design language and clear lines. It was only in his late work that Henschel found works made of various materials that exert their tension, e.g. B. from the contrast of the surfaces.

Works by Henschel are also in public gallery ownership, including in the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin. A representative retrospective took place on the occasion of his 100th birthday in the Heilbronn City Museum.

literature

• 30 years of the Heilbronn Artists' Association, summer exhibition 1979 , pp. 84/85.
• Markus Lörz: The continued effect of the Bauhaus in the work of the designer Erich Henschel . At: kunsttexte.de , Issue 1: Art and Design (edited by G. Jain), 2010
• Werner Baumann: The artist couple Ruth and Erich Henschel . In: Karl-Heinz Dähn (Red.): 700 years of the city of Löwenstein 1287–1987. A homeland and non-fiction book . City of Löwenstein, Löwenstein 1987, DNB 910983461 , pp. 490-494

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Date of birth and death according to Heilbronn City Archives , Contemporary History Collection, signature ID = 38744, entry on Erich Henschel in the HEUSS database
2. ↑ [1]