Georg Eckelt

Georg Eckelt (born March 19, 1932 in Wischütz, Lower Silesia ; † July 26, 2012 in Königs Wusterhausen ) was a German graphic artist and photographer . He is considered a leading exponent of East German object photography.

life and work

After his Abitur at the Kreuzschule in Dresden and an apprenticeship as a mechanical engineer, Georg Eckelt studied at the Karl-Marx-Stadt University of Mechanical Engineering from 1953, but dropped out after two years. In 1955 he began studying photography at the University of Graphic Art and Book Art in Leipzig , which he completed with a diploma in 1960 under Johannes Widmann.

From 1960 to 1967 he headed the photography department at the Institute for Applied Arts Berlin. In 1966 he became a candidate and in 1971 a member of the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR .

From 1963 he rented retail space at Winsstrasse 25 in Berlin - Prenzlauer Berg , which he used as a studio for his freelance work until 1992. Recordings were made for various industrial companies as well as institutions such as the German Advertising and Advertising Society (DEWAG), the Office for Industrial Design (AIF) and the Berlin-Weißensee School of Art .

Between 1973 and 1976 he created the photographic documentation of the construction of the Palace of the Republic .

His work is characterized by a matter-of-fact, sober style that puts the industrial products shown at the center of the work. Eckelt photographed the designs of designers such as Marlies Ameling , Ilse Decho , Karl Clauss Dietel , Wolfgang Dyroff , Rudolf Horn , Margarete Jahny , Erich John , Dietmar Palloks, Jürgen Peters , Christa Petroff-Bohne , Lutz Rudolph and Wilhelm Wagenfeld .

The photographic estate is managed by his son Christoph Eckelt.

Prizes and awards

• Best poster series 1972 - 2nd DEWAG quality competition (consumer poster series "Goods for daily use" with Margret Mühle)

• 2nd and 3rd prize - competition 1977 "The industrial product in a photo" of the trade journal for industrial design " form + Zweck "

• 1st and 2nd prize - competition 1979 "The industrial product in photo" of the trade journal for industrial design "form + Zweck"

• 3rd prize - competition 1980 "The industrial product in a photo" of the trade journal for industrial design "form + Zweck"

• 2nd prize - 1981 competition "The industrial product in a photo" of the trade journal for industrial design "form + Zweck"

• Awarded in the DEWAG “Best Work of the Year” competition in 1986, 1987 and 1988

• 2nd and 3rd prize - Photo design competition 1988 of the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR

Exhibitions

• Design in the GDR. Design Center of the State Trade Office of Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart - 1988
• Miracle economy. GDR consumer culture and product design in the 1960s . Industrial Design Collection, Berlin 1996–1997
• Working for the series - Margarethe Jahny. Design Center Saxony-Anhalt, Dessau 1998
• Showcase with light. Gallery Kienzle & Gmeiner, Berlin - 2001
• In view of the masses - posters in the GDR. Documentation Center for Everyday Culture of the GDR , Eisenhüttenstadt and Landtag of Brandenburg , Potsdam - 2002
• Design is culture. A work exhibition. Industrial design collection, Berlin - 2002 to 2003
• Two German architectures. Institute for Foreign Relations , international traveling exhibition - 2004 to 2018
• Is everything according to plan? Design in the GDR. Museum in der Kulturbrauerei (series of images), Berlin - 2016
• Barkas, Simson, Moccadolly - The designer Lutz Rudolph (series of images). Museum of Applied Arts , Gera - 2017
• Palace of the Republic - utopia, inspiration, politics. Kunsthalle Rostock - 2019
• Palace of the Republic satellite. KVOST, Berlin - 2019
• Beauty of form - the designer Christa Petroff-Bohne. State Art Collections Dresden - 2020

literature

• Heinz Hirdina : Design for the series. Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1988, ISBN 3-364-00042-5 . (Series of images)
• Industrial design collection (Ed.): Insights, outlooks. Industrial design collection. Concept and text Hein Köster. Berlin 1991, DNB 991889673 . (Series of images)
• New society for fine arts (ed.), Ina Merkel, Felix Mühlberg: Wunderwirtschaft. GDR consumer culture in the 1960s. Böhlau-Verlag, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-412-08396-8 .
• Günter Höhne : Margarete Jahny: The grace of the rational. Design Center Saxony-Anhalt, Dessau 1998, ISBN 3-930410-10-9 . (Series of images)
• Hein Köster: Christa Petroff-Bohne - An East German Designer Biography. German Porcelain Museum , Hohenberg / Eger 2000, ISBN 3-927793-59-0 . (Series of images)
• Günter Höhne: Penti, Erika and Bebo Sher - classics of GDR design. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-320-9 . (Series of images)
• Jens Kassner : Clauss Dietel & Lutz Rudolph - design is culture. edition full beard, Chemnitz 2002, ISBN 3-935534-05-1 . (Series of images)
• Jens Kassner: OSTFORM - The designer Karl Clauss Dietel. Leipzig 2009, ISBN 978-3-935534-19-2 . (Series of images)
• Dieter Schreiber: Rudolf Horn - design as an open principle. form + Zweck Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-935053-23-5 . (Series of images)
• Doris Weilandt: Form and Function - The form designer Lutz Rudolph. Art collection Gera and authors, 2017, ISBN 978-3-910051-62-1 . (Series of images)
• Elke Neumann: Palace of the Republic - utopia, inspiration, politics. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2019, ISBN 978-3-96311-187-7 .
• Angelika and Jörg Petruschat, Silke Ihden-Rothkirch: Beauty of Form. The designer Christa Petroff-Bohne. form + Zweck Verlag, Berlin 2020, ISBN 978-3-947045-17-4 .

Web links

• “In the eyes of the masses”. Posters in the GDR
• https://www.kienzleartfoundation.de/georg-eckelt
• https://kvost.de/exhibition/palast-der- Republik/
• http://www.gieraltowski.pl/strona/en/kulturschaffende/eckelt.html

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Farewell to Georg Eckelt , in NEWSLETTER 04/2012, p. 4, on industrieform-ddr.de, accessed on February 17, 2019.
2. ↑ Plan or haphazard? Design in the GDR , on zeitgeschichte-online.de, accessed on February 17, 2019.