Fre Cohen

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Fré Cohen, 1920s

Frederika Sophia Cohen (born August 11, 1903 in Amsterdam , Netherlands ; † June 14, 1943 in Hengelo ), known as "Fré", artist name "Freco", signature "FC", pseudonym Connie Frederichs , was a Dutch graphic artist , typographer , draftsman , Painter , illustrator , lithographer and wood cutter . Her work influenced Dutch graphic design in the 1930s.

family

Fré Cohen: portrait drawing Levie Cohen, February 13, 1925

She was the eldest child of the social democratic diamond cutter Levie Cohen (born March 15, 1874 in Gouda , † September 17, 1942 in Auschwitz-Birkenau ) and his wife Esther (born June 2, 1876 in Amsterdam, † November 1, 1942 in Amsterdam ), née Sarlie. Fré Cohen had two younger siblings, Sophie (March 18, 1906-1949) and Bernard Henri (July 21, 1912 in Berchem , † February 18, 1945 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp ). After moving to Antwerp for professional reasons , the family returned to Amsterdam after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. As a child, Fré Cohen showed an interest in drawing and expressed a desire to become a caricaturist . As a teenager she became a member of the socialist youth organization Arbeiders Jeugd Centrale (AJC) of the Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiderspartij (SDAP). This membership and their commitment there was of great importance for the development of their graphic designs. The family had no money to study graphics, so that Fré Cohen left school when she reached the age of 16 and initially worked in a commercial office. She also attended drawing courses in the evenings at the Amsterdam Graphic School , where she was taught model drawing by the painter Wim Schuhmacher (1894–1986), among others . She took piano lessons with Lion Contran (1898–1958, aka Lion Vleeschdrager) and drew them on the piano .

Act

In 1921 she worked for Hollandsche Draad & Kabel Fabriek in Amsterdam, for which she designed advertisements. As an autodidact , she oriented herself to the Art Deco style and to the Dutch artists' association De Stijl . From 1923 she was employed in the administration of the socialist publishing house NV Boekhandel en Uitgevers Maatschappij Ontwikkeling (= AG Buchhandels- und Verlag -Gesellschaft Entwicklung; later renamed De Arbeiderspers ), which was associated with the Dutch Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiderspartij . In addition to her regular office work, she carried out graphic designs, including typographical ones . She made friends with Maria Wilhelmina Vos (1897–1994), who was employed by AJC chairman Jacobus Jan “Koos” Vorrink (1891–1955) in the office of the Arbeiders Jeugd Centrale on Amsterdam's Reguliersgracht . Poems by her sister Griet Vos (1891–1985), who published as Margot Vos, inspired Fré Cohen's illustrations. Fré Cohen was the designer responsible for most of the numerous print products that were published by the SDAP's Arbeiders Jeugd Centrale . Her illustrations can be found, for example, in the women's newspaper De Proletäre Vrouw (= The proletarian woman ), which was published from 1905 to 1940 . This brought her into contact with the Vooruitgang (= progress) print shop of the social democratic workers' party. Around this time she made friends with Alice Emilie van Nahuijs (1894–1967, also: Nahuys), who later worked for Querido Verlag . As a designer, she was familiar with the basic technical processes such as sentence , but as a woman was initially viewed with skepticism and aloof by the male colleagues who dominated this professional group.

From 1924, in addition to her professional commitment, she took graphics courses at the newly established Instituut voor Kunstnijverheid Quellinus . At that time she was the only woman there who took typography. Thanks to a scholarship , she was able to study graphics to the full from 1927 and graduated in 1929 at the Institute for Applied Graphics as a qualified graphic designer. As the first of this educational institution, she was awarded the Medal of Merit for Outstanding Achievement. In 1930 she successfully completed a model drawing course.

Fré Cohen (left) with colleagues in the studio, around 1930
Fré Cohen on the woodcut for the book title Het Joodsche Bruidje (after the painting by Rembrandt ) by Sani van Bussum, 1933
Fré Cohen with palette in front of one of her graphic projects for an Amsterdam-based import-export company that traded goods to and from Palestine , 1936
Fré Cohen in her studio in Amsterdam , 1937

From 1929 to 1932 she was during the Great Depression in the Stadsdrukkerij van Amsterdam , working part-time, the urban central print shop. Dismissed due to austerity measures, she continued to work for this company as a freelancer from 1932 to 1941 and designed almost all printed matter for the offices and services of the Dutch capital for more than a decade - for the energy companies, the housing companies, the municipal savings bank Gemeentegiro , the City cleaning, the Stadsschouwburg municipal theater , the port of Amsterdam and Schiphol Airport . In doing so, she managed to create her own graphic identity for these urban companies ( corporate design , corporate identity ). During this time she was nicknamed “Saartje Wip” because of her high pace of work.

She also found the time to make illustrations for Maarten Borsje (1880–1963), the chairman of the Nederlandsche Arbeidersreisvereeniging (= Dutch workers' travel association ), for his Gids voor natuurvrienden (= guide for nature lovers). In 1934 she worked in Ascona in the Swiss canton of Ticino . In 1935 she welcomed the New York theater director Maurice Schwartz , who had come from Paris to Amsterdam with his Yiddish Art Theater on the occasion of a guest performance of the play Yoshe Kalb , written by Israel Joschua Singer , with his Yiddish Art Theater .

She also illustrated book editions, for example for the publishing house De Arbeiderspers , the Querido publishing house des Emanuel Querido and for De Wereldbibliotheek as well as for trade unions, the Instituut voor Arbeidersontwikkeling (IvAO), companies and Jewish institutions and publications such as Het Joodsche Weekblad (= The Jewish weekly newspaper , Edition of the Joodsche Raad voor Amsterdam ), Ha'Ischa (organ of the Jewish Women's Council in the Netherlands), De Vrijdagavond (Jewish weekly paper) and Het Nieuw Israëlitisch Weekblad .

For example, she designed books by the authors Lion Feuchtwanger , Leonhard Frank and Joseph Roth, who had fled the German Reich . Meijer Bleekrode studied graphic design techniques with Fré Cohen.

Fré Cohen provided designs for all types of printed matter, paintings, portraits, drawings, woodcuts and linocuts . Her graphic work can be characterized in her early, partly autodidactic creative phase as decorative with romantic aspects, influenced by Art Nouveau and Cubism . In the wake of the New Objectivity , she later developed her own expressive style, which was also noticed abroad and from 1934 onwards she was invited to give lectures in England.

One of the fonts she designed, "Freco", is still available today. Some examples of her graphic and typographic work can be found online.

After the attack on the Netherlands in 1940 by the German Wehrmacht , Fré Cohen hid one after the other in Amsterdam, Diemen , Rotterdam , Winterswijk and Borne , sometimes across from a school where Wehrmacht soldiers were billeted, but continued to work during this time. From the beginning of December 1941 to the beginning of September 1942 she taught together with Jo Spier (1900–1978, draftsman for UFA actor Kurt Gerron in the Theresienstadt concentration camp for the film Theresienstadt. A documentary film from the Jewish settlement area ) and Engelin Reitsma-Valença (1889–1981 ) Graphics and advertising techniques at the Middelbare Joodsche kunstnijverheidsschool " WA van Leer " , a foundation that was under the supervision of the Joodsche Raad voor Amsterdam (= Jewish Council for Amsterdam).

On June 12, 1943, she was arrested by the SS in Borne - probably because of a denunciation . As a Jew, she felt itself in a hopeless situation and committed suicide using pills she had always carried with them during this phase, suicide . After two days in a coma , she died at the age of 39 in Gerardus Majellaziekenhuis hospital in Hengelo. She was buried in the local Jewish cemetery in Dennenbosweg. After the end of the war, her younger sister Sophie had a simple tombstone erected there, which also commemorates the family members murdered in the concentration camps, her father and brother.

literature

  • Johan Schwencke: Graphic work by Fré Cohen . In: De Vrouw en haar huis , March 1935.
  • Johan Schwencke: Graphic work by Fré Cohen . Vanholkema & Warendorf, Amsterdam 1935. OCLC 959358930
  • AHG Blankenstein: Fré Cohen . In: Ons Technisch Maandblad , Winter 1937, pp. 16-23.
  • Rond Paasheuvel en Prinsenhof (Amsterdam 1977) B. Roodnat: Fré Cohen, een vergeten kunstenares . In: Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant , September 13, 1977.
  • Rond Paasheuvel en Prinsenhof . For the Fré Cohen exhibition in Amstelpark , Amsterdam, September 1977, Stadsdrukkerij van Amsterdam, 1977.
  • Fré Cohen gave Amsterdam a print shop . In: De Waarheid , September 14, 1977.
  • Fre Cohen. Amsterdam 11-8-1903 - Hengelo 14-6-1943. Tekeningen, watercolors, lithographs, typographical vormgeving, bookplates, affiches . For the exhibition in the Oudheidkamer of the Stichting Oald Hengel (Foundation) in Hengelo, April 29 to June 1, 1985. Broekhuis, Hengelo 1985. OCLC 942874615
  • Dick Dooijes (1909-1998, typographer). In: Ons Amsterdam , September 1985.
  • Marjo van Soest: Andermans leven. Tracy Metz and Ineke Vlug, de duo-biographers van Fré Cohen . In: Vrij Nederland , Bijlage, February 20, 1988, pp. 8-9. OCLC 775314452
  • Geertje Marianne Naarden: Onze jeugd behoort de tomorrow ... De divorced from de AJC in oorlogstijd . Stichting Beheer IISG, Amsterdam 1989. ISBN 9068610414 .
  • José W. van Dijk: Het socialisme spant zijn gouden net over de wereld. Het kunst- en cultuurbeleid van de SDAP . Uriah Heep, Montfoord 1990. ISBN 907034307X .
  • Peter van Dam, Philip van Praag: Fré Cohen. Leven en werk van een moved artistic things . Uniepers, Abcoude 1993. ISBN 9068251236 .
  • Peter van Dam, Philip van Praag: Fré Cohen en hair relatie met Alkmaar . In: Oud Alkmaar , September 1993, pp. 3-11.
  • Peter van Dam, Philip van Praag: Amsterdam gaf het voorbeeld. Gemeentelijke opdrachten aan grafische kunstenaars 1912–1939 . Uniepers, Abcoude 1996. ISBN 9068251775 .
  • Jan Meilof: A wereld light en vrij. Het culturele werk van de AJC 1918–1959 . Stichting Beheer, Amsterdam 2000. ISBN 906861195X .

Exhibitions

  • 1977 - Fré Cohen exhibition, Amstelpark, Amsterdam, September 1977
  • 1985 - Fré Cohen. Amsterdam 11-8-1903 - Hengelo 14-6-1943. Tekeningen, watercolors, lithographs, typographical vormgeving, bookplates, affiches . Exhibition in the Oudheidkamer of the Oald Hengel Foundation in Hengelo, April 29 to June 1, 1985
  • 1987 - Voorwaarts! Elie Smalhout, Meijer Bleekrode, Fré Cohen, 3 joodse kunstenaars en de socialist moving 1918–1940 , Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam 1987

watch TV

  • Hans van Zwol: Fré Cohen , documentary, 1979, 31 min., VARA-TV, first broadcast May 4, 1980.

Web links

Commons : Category: Fré Cohen  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frederika Sophia Cohen , on: biografischportaal.nl
  2. ^ RG Fuks-Mansfeld (Ed.): Joden in Nederland in de twintigste eeuw. A biographical woordenboek . Het Spectrum, Utrecht 2007, ISBN 978-90-274-5195-8 , p. 47.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Henk van der Meulen: Fré Cohen gaf typographically gezicht aan het socialisme . In: Leeuwarder Courant , Culturele Bijlage, June 25, 1993, at: delpher.nl
  4. ^ Cohen, Levie, born 1874-03-15 . In: Transport lists of the “police transit camp for Jews in Kamp Westerbork” , quoted by: Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau , Oświęcim , at: auschwitz.org
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g Frederika Sophia Cohen , on: galeriewijdemeren.nl
  6. ↑ a b c d e f Cohen, Fré (Frederika Sophia) , on: memoriart33–45.org
  7. ↑ Sophia Walthemathe-Cohen , 18–03–1906 in Amsterdam. In: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), Dutch Survivor Lists, at: ushmm.org
  8. ↑ Bernard Henri Cohen, 21-07-1912 , A01232_0157_0637. In: Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Archiefkaarten van Persoonskaarten 1939–1994.
  9. ↑ Bernard Henri Cohen, 18–02–1945 , Bergen-Belsen, Reg. A58, file 411, p. 70. In: Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Archief van de Burgerlijke stand, Registers van Algemene Akten, 1949–1961.
  10. ↑ a b c d e f g h Cohen, Frederika Sophia (1903–1943) . In: Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland , on: knaw.nl
  11. ↑ a b c d e f g Ron Conijn: Fré Cohen . In: Wendingen Platform voor de Amsterdamse School , on: amsterdamse-school.nl
  12. ^ Femke Meijer, Christine van Eerd: Les met een genuine Heidelbergpers - De Amsterdamse Grafische School 1918–2018 (PDF file; 684 kB). In: Ons Amsterdam , No. 6 / June (2018), May 25, 2018, pp. 22-25 (quote: p. 22).
  13. ↑ a b c d e f g h Philip van Praag: Cohen, Frederika Sophia . In: Biografisch Woordenboek van het Socialisme en de Arbeidersbeweging in Nederland (BWSA), on: socialhistory.org, based on the previous publication in BWSA , 3 (1988), pp. 27-28.
  14. ↑ Ger Harmsen: Vleeschdrager, Lion . In: Biografisch Woordenboek van het Socialisme en de Arbeidersbeweging in Nederland (BWSA), on: socialhistory.org, based on the previous publication in BWSA , 3 (1988), pp. 211-214.
  15. ↑ a b c d e C. C .: Een teekenares vertelt: Hoe Fré Cohen toch hair roeping con volgen - Bekende, populaire illustratrice . In: Het Joodsche Weekblad , Uitgave van den Joodschen Raad voor Amsterdam, 1st year, No. 12, June 27, 1941, p. 5.
  16. ^ Margot de Waal: Vos, Maria Wilhelmina . In: Biografisch Woordenboek van het Socialisme en de Arbeidersbeweging in Nederland (BWSA), on: socialhistory.org, based on the previous publication in: BWSA , 8 (2001), pp. 312-315.
  17. ^ A b Margot de Waal: Vos, Grietje . In: Biografisch Woordenboek van het Socialisme en de Arbeidersbewing in Nederland (BWSA), on: socialhistory.org, based on a previous publication in BWSA , 7 (1998), pp. 246–249.
  18. ↑ Eric de Ruijter: Arbeiders Jeugd Centrale (AJC) . In: International Institute of Social History, on: iisg.nl
  19. ↑ De Meiroep, 1931 (Ontwerp Fré Cohen), signature: Microfiche 2495: 3, on: iisg.nl
  20. ↑ Jannes Houkes: Borsje, Maarten . In: Biografisch Woordenboek van het Socialisme in Nederland (BWSA), on: socialhistory.org
  21. ↑ Fré Cohen , on: rkd.nl
  22. ^ Yiddish Theater in Amsterdam . In: Algemeen Handelsblad , Avondblad van Woensdag June 26, 1935, p. 4.
  23. ↑ Alfred Adler, Fré Cohen, Heinz Jacoby, Sofie Lazarsfeld, Otto Rühle, Alice Rühle-Gerstel, P. Dijkema ( transl .): Het moeilijke kind. Twintig opvoedkundige studies . De Wereldbibliotheek, Amsterdam 1934. OCLC 67551740
  24. ↑ Zwerftochen door klein-Jeruzalem , on: joodsamsterdam.nl
  25. ↑ Carry van Lakerveld: Bleekrode, Meijer . In: Biografisch Woordenboek van het Socialisme en de Arbeidersbewing in Nederland (BWSA), on: socialhistory.org, based on a previous publication in: BWSA , 3 (1988), pp. 15-17.
  26. ↑ Freco , on: myfonts.com
  27. ^ Cohen, Frederika Sophia . In: Stichting Het Rijksmuseum, on: rijksmuseum.nl
  28. ^ Fré Cohen . In: Joods Cultureel Kwartier, on: jck.nl
  29. ^ Cohen, FS (Fré, 1903-1943) . In: Stadsarchief Gemeente Amsterdam, on: amsterdam.nl
  30. ^ Fritz Bauer Institute (ed.): Auschwitz: History, Reception and Effect . Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3593354411 , pp. 332–333.
  31. ↑ Jaap Kaas en de Joodsche Kunstnijverheidsschool (PDF file; 2.1 MB), on: eenkleineheldendaad.nl
  32. ↑ Hetty Berg, David Duindam, Frank van Vree (ed.): Site of deportation, Site of Memory: The Amsterdam Hollandsche Schouwburg and the Holocaust , Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2018, ISBN 978-90-485-3672-6 , S 99-100.
  33. ↑ Bart de Cort: Engelien Reitsma-Valença (1889–1981), drawer, graphic artist, painter . Lulu Press. Morrisville, North Carolina, USA, 2009, ISBN 978-0-5570-7640-6 , pp. 84-87.
  34. ↑ Joodse Begraafplaats aan de Dennenbosweg , on: hengelose-es.nl
  35. ↑ Fré Cohen , on: joodsamsterdam.nl
personal data
SURNAME Cohen, Fré
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cohen, Frederika Sophia (maiden name); Freco (stage name); FC (factory signature); Frederichs, Connie (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch graphic artist, typographer, illustrator, painter, draftsman, lithographer and wood cutter
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam , Netherlands
DATE OF DEATH June 14, 1943
Place of death Hengelo , Netherlands