Richard von Sichowsky

Richard von Sichowsky (born May 28, 1911 in Hamburg ; † January 28, 1975 there ) was a German typographer and book designer . He was the founder of the cricket press .

Life

Richard von Sichowsky, who came from a family of craftsmen, learned the profession of typesetter after attending the Lichtwarkschule under Peter Petersen in Hamburg, a reform school with a special educational character. After his apprenticeship, he traveled through Bohemia , Austria and Italy . He continued his training in Munich and studied with Georg Trump , Josefkauf and Hermann Virl at the master school for Germany's book printers, which later became the academy for the graphic industry, which is now part of the Munich University of Applied Sciences .

Initially, his professional career began in the workshop of Heinrich Ellermann Verlag . In 1946 he was appointed to what was then the State Art School Hamburg, today's State University of Fine Arts Hamburg . As a professor in the typography and book design department, he made a decisive contribution to the development of German book art after the Second World War.

The encounter with the sculptor Gerhard Marcks led to the first prints of the Grillenpresse - a private press that Richard von Sichowsky founded in 1951 and in which a number of important works were created. He saw his artistic task in bringing image and text into harmony and in the typographic design and organization of scientific works. His book designs can often be found among the “Most Beautiful Books of the Year” of the Book Art Foundation .

Richard von Sichowsky, who strived for perfection and consistency, was perplexed and bewildered by the student unrest that also gripped the art college in the 1970s, withdrew and devoted himself almost exclusively to his book design work. The publisher Friedrich Wittig wrote that it seemed to him that von Sichowsky and Kurt Londenberg , head of the book binding class , were strangers at the Lerchenfeld University - characters from a sinking era of book art.

After his retirement he moved to his workshop in Hamburg-Lemsahl and was full of plans and zest for action. After a short, serious illness, he died at the age of 64. The wood engraver and book designer Otto Rohse completed his last work and is now managing his extensive estate.

Richard von Sichowsky's work has influenced generations of typographers, book artists and designers. His name is now a synonym for the “Hamburg School” of typography and book design.

Book designs

• Aesop's animal fables - with 28 woodcuts by Gerhard Marcks; Cricket press, 1951
• The book of the prophet Jonah - with 9 woodcuts by Gerhard Marcks; Cricket press, 1951
• Oskar Kokoschka : Ann Eliza Reed - with 11 lithographs by Oskar Kokoschka; Maximilian Society, 1952
• Otto Rohse: Pet, the fish. A picture story - with 16 wood engravings by Otto Rohse; Cricket press, 1960
• Russian animal stories - with 63 drawings by Josef Hegenbarth ; Heinrich Ellermann Verlag, 1961
• Bertolt Brecht : Songs from the Threepenny Opera - with 23 woodcuts by Hansen-Bahia ; Dr. Ernst Hauswedell, 1961
• Gottfried Keller : Catching the cricket - with 16 wood engravings by Imre Reiner ; Cricket press, 1962
• Children's songs from the Knaben Wunderhorn - with 41 wood engravings by Andreas Brylka ; Cricket press, 1964
• Edgar Horstmann: Kokoschka in Hamburg; Hans Christians Verlag, 1965
• Aristophanes: The Birds - with 37 wood engraving illustrations by Imre Reiner , Maximilian Society, 1965
• Hamburg Bible - New Testament and Psalter from 1545; Friedrich Wittig Verlag, (posthumously) 1982

source

Richard von Sichowsky Typographer, Maximilian Society, 1982