Kurt Zimmermann (Illustrator)
Kurt Zimmermann (born November 27, 1913 in Berlin ; † May 10, 1976 in East Berlin ) was a German book, poster and, above all, children's book illustrator who illustrated many children's books from GDR publishers.
Life
Kurt Zimmermann was born to a working class family in Berlin. From 1929 to 1931 he did an apprenticeship as a lithographer and at the same time attended the arts and crafts school in Berlin. In 1931 he began studying at the University of Applied Arts in Berlin-Charlottenburg . He studied with Ludwig Bartning and Böhland until 1935, among others .
After completing his studies, Zimmermann worked as a freelance commercial artist . In 1941 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and later became a prisoner of war .
After his return from captivity in 1948, he again worked independently in Berlin as an illustrator and graphic artist . Once he also designed a politically oriented poster for the GDR. However, his main area of work was illustrations of children's books. 70 children's books that were published in the GDR alone bore his artistic signature, especially in the children's book publishing house in Berlin . He also illustrated the German editions of Soviet children's books, such as Timur and his team from Arkadi Gaidar , but also How Steel Was Hardened by Nikolai Ostrowski .
Zimmermann himself described it as his task “to show the historical change in people themselves and in their relationship to the environment”.
He also designed book covers such as the cover graphic of poetry album 2 on Vladimir Mayakovsky .
Zimmermann went on study trips a. a. to Cuba (1961), the USSR and Poland . He became a lecturer at the Institute for Fine Arts in East Berlin.
His grave is in the churchyard of the Seemannskirche in Prerow .
Children's books
- 1954: Ludwig Renn : Trini. The story of an Indian boy. Children's book publisher, Berlin 1954 (the book won the GDR National Prize in 1955 for Ludwig Renn ).
Collections
- The picture book museum Burg Wissem owns a total of 1200 sheets from Zimmermann's work .
Honors
- 1959: Art Prize of the FDGB
- 1960: Art Prize of the GDR
- 1961: Art Prize of the FDGB for the lithography "writing worker"
- 1963: National Prize of the GDR
literature
- Marcus Kenzler: The view into the other world. Influences of Latin America on the visual arts of the GDR (= theory of contemporary art. Vol. 18). Part 1 and 2. LIT Verlag, Münster 2012, ISBN 978-3-643-11025-1 , [Part 1:] pp. 220, 233 f .; [Part 2:] S. 811, 845 (Zugl .: Hildesheim, Univ., Diss., 2010; search in the book for "Kurt Zimmermann" in the Google book search).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Timur and his troop. In: carqueville.ch. GDR children's books, compiled by Isabel Carqueville, accessed on January 9, 2018 (with the book cover illustration).
- ↑ How the steel was hardened. In: carqueville.ch. GDR children's books, compiled by Isabel Carqueville, accessed on January 9, 2018 (with the book cover illustration).
- ^ The Kurt Zimmermann Collection. In: troisdorf.de. Burg Wissem, picture book museum of the city of Troisdorf, accessed on January 9, 2018.
- ↑ Trini. In: carqueville.ch. GDR children's books, compiled by Isabel Carqueville, accessed on January 9, 2018 (with the book cover illustration).
- ↑ Marcus Kenzler: The view into the other world. Influences of Latin America on the visual arts of the GDR (= theory of contemporary art. Vol. 18). Part 2. LIT Verlag, Münster 2012, ISBN 978-3-643-11025-1 , p. 811 (Zugl .: Hildesheim, Univ., Diss., 2010; preview in the Google book search).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Carpenter, Kurt |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German book, poster and especially children's book illustrator |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 27, 1913 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 10, 1976 |
| Place of death | East Berlin |