Max Burchartz

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Max Burchartz around 1927

Max Hubert Innozenz Maria Burchartz (born July 28, 1887 in Elberfeld , † January 31, 1961 in Essen ) was a German graphic artist , typographer and painter .

Life

Family, education, early years

He was born in 1887 as the son of the factory owner Otto Burchartz and his wife Maria, a daughter of the Aachen merchant Caspar Giani . Buchartz grew up in a wealthy family. After finishing school, he went through various training courses, including in his father's upholstery weaving mill, in a textile technical school and in a school of applied arts , and did a commercial apprenticeship. From 1906 to 1909 he studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy . There he was a student of Walter Corde , Eduard von Gebhardt , Ludwig Keller and Willy Spatz . During this time he was already painting in the Impressionist style. After his time as a soldier in World War I , he retired to rural Blankenhain and mainly painted village motifs and still lifes.

From 1919 to 1926 Burchartz lived and worked mainly in Hanover , where he belonged to the circle around Kurt Schwitters . During this time, however, he also went to Weimar and Bochum .

In 1922, Burchartz attended a De Stijl course with Theo van Doesburg at the Bauhaus in Weimar from August 3 to August 5 . This experience was followed by a break in his previous work and a turn to modernity, which was expressed in a constructivist painting style from then on . At the 1922 Congress of Constructivists and Dadaists in Weimar, Burchartz came with Hans Arp , Nelly and Theo van Doesburg, Cornelis van Eesteren , Werner Graeff , Hans Richter , Alexa and Karl Peter Röhl , Tristan Tzara , El Lissitzky , Lucia and László Moholy- Nagy together. He also worked as a translator for the Bauhaus. Together with the author Theo van Doesburg, for example, he translated “Basic Concepts of New Design” from the originally Dutch version into German ( Bauhaus books ; 6).

The foundation of "werbebau" in the Ruhr area

In 1924, Burchartz moved to the Ruhr area and founded with Johannes Canis on November 1, 1924, “werbebau”, the first modern advertising agency in Germany. She devoted herself to the new typography and color design of the Bauhaus modernism. The artistic and economic success came quickly. The Bochumer Verein was one of the first customers .

During this time, Burchartz developed a new layout style that was characterized by the free use of typography, photography and photo collage. From 1926 he also designed furniture, worked for the German Werkbund and became a publicist . His work for the company Wehag , Heiligenhaus , became particularly important , for which, in addition to product lines of door handles and fittings, he also designed metal letters in font sizes from 30 to 350 mm in 1936, which were produced until the 1970s. With the adjustment of the product range and the development of the entire corporate identity , he had a lasting impact on the company's development over the course of several decades.

On April 1, 1927, he received a professorship for typography at the Folkwang School in Essen , which he made a significant contribution to. However, the global economic crisis led to his position being deleted on December 15, 1931.

The Hans-Sachs-Haus Gelsenkirchen

The Hans Sachs House from the inside

In 1927 Burchartz belonged to the group around the architect Alfred Fischer , who built the Hans-Sachs-Haus in Gelsenkirchen . Burchartz developed a color coding system for the corridors of the house and thus created what is believed to be the first example of applied signage in a public building. The system led through the house with wall-sized color fields in primary colors. Each floor was assigned one of the colors red, green, yellow and blue. The technical execution was directed by Burchartz's student, the young Anton Stankowski .

After the war, this important work was painted over and forgotten, but rediscovered and partially restored in the 1990s. During the renovation of the house, which was carried out from 2001 (but failed), the plaster was knocked off throughout the building and every remnant of the original color coding system was destroyed.

In the Third Reich

After Hitler came to power , Burchartz became a member of the NSDAP , hoping to regain his position at the Folkwang School. During this time he went on various photo trips and produced printed matter for the industry, e.g. B. 1933 “Sailors Soldiers Comrades” and 1935 “Soldiers - a picture book from the New Army”. Between 1933 and 1939 he also worked for the Forkardt company , for which he designed “Das Buch vom Spannen ” in 1939, an illustrative and non-fiction book on the subject of manual chucks. In addition, he had contact through Wehag with the Donar company, which manufactured doors and for which he designed brochures between 1935 and 1936. In 1937, some of his works were presented at the Schandschau Degenerate Art and then 23 of his works were confiscated in German museums.

At the beginning of the war, Buchartz volunteered for the army. He experienced the end of the war in Paris.

New start at the Folkwang School

Grave site of Max Burchartz. Essen, Südfriedhof

In May 1949, Burchartz took part in the collective exhibition German Painting and Sculpture of the Present in the Cologne State House in the Rheinpark . In the same year he was called back to the Folkwang School, where he looked after the first-year students. Building on the preliminary courses developed at the Bauhaus (Itten, Klee), he teaches students a universal, sensual approach and the idea of ​​holistic design. His first art theoretical work "Parable of Harmony" appeared. In 1953 another followed: “Design theory” with many application examples from his students (e.g. from Dieter Reick ). During this time he also created a series of material collages and raster images in which he used new materials such as raster foils, plastic foils, Formica and tapestries.

Max Burchartz died on January 31, 1961 in Essen. A year after his death, the book he edited, "Schule des Schauens", was published.

reception

Although Burchartz's work is one of the pioneers of modern design and can be compared to designers like Peter Behrens and Anton Stankowski , his name has never achieved the same level of awareness. Nevertheless, many basic principles of today's communication design , such as the design of color coding systems, are based on his work.

Works

  • 1919: The Demons , 8 stone drawings for Dostoyevsky 's novel of the same name, reproduced in The Silver Column , Vol. 43/44
  • Raskolnikoff , 10 stone drawings for Dostoyevsky 's novel of the same name. With a foreword by Paul Erich Küppers. Düsseldorf (second portfolio of the Flechtheim Gallery) 1919
  • Sailors, soldiers, comrades: A picture book from the Reichsmarine, (with Edgar Zeller), Hamburg 1933
  • Soldiers, a picture book from the New Army, Hamburg 1935
  • Parable of Harmony, Munich 1949
  • Design theory for designers and everyone who strives to understand the meaning of creative design , Munich 1953
  • Blacks, reds and people like us, painted and told by children , Essen 1956
  • Elementary drawing for the experience of form, Munich 1957
  • 50 years of the Folkwang School of Design, (with Hermann Schardt), Essen 1961
  • School of Looking , Munich 1962

Awards

literature

Web links

Commons : Max Burchartz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Museum Kunstpalast : Artists from the Düsseldorf School of Painting (selection, as of November 2016, PDF )
  2. ↑ a b Hugo Thielen: BUCHARTZ ... (see literature)
  3. ↑ s. Burchartz, Max. In: Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 (= The time of National Socialism. Vol. 17153). Completely revised edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-596-17153-8 , p. 79.
  4. ↑ Burchartz, Max . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 1 : A-D . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1953, p. 352 .
  5. ^ Rainer K. Wick : Dieter Reick - all sorts of 50 years. (Catalog for the exhibition of the same name at the Brühler Kunstverein from December 7 to 21, 2008.) Brühl 2008.
personal data
SURNAME Burchartz, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Burchartz, Max Hubert Innozenz Maria (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German graphic artist, typographer and painter
DATE OF BIRTH July 28, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1961
Place of death eat