Michael Engelmann (graphic designer)

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Michael Engelmann (born February 26, 1928 in Prague , Czechoslovakia , † January 24, 1966 in Düsseldorf ) was an American graphic artist of Czech-German descent.

life and work

Pavel Michael Engelmann was born near Prague as the son of the Jewish silk manufacturer Walter Engelmann and the non-Jewish actress Sonik Rainer , nee. Antonia Steinkleiber was born. After his parents separated, Michael Engelmann had to emigrate to the USA with his father in 1941.

After losing his father at the age of 13, he made his way through washing dishes, etc. He later also worked in a law firm. (Proof: original letters to the mother). He made a drama training with Lee Strassberg, this, however, broke off, turned the commercial art to and worked in a graphic design agency in 1949 New York City . As a graphic artist he was self-taught. In the same year he also received US citizenship. Also in 1949 he returned to Europe and initially worked as a graphic designer for the magazine “ International Textiles ” in Amsterdam , then as art director for Die Neue Zeitung in Munich , and later as a graphic designer for Pirelli in Milan . From 1953 he lived and worked as a freelance artist in Düsseldorf and Munich.

His works show the influences of the Bauhaus and classical modernism of the pre-war period.

“The poster designs by Michael Engelmann (1928 to 1966) are seen as an aesthetic reorientation between functionalism and pop . In his campaigns for Bols , Libella , Renault and Roth-Händle , he created pointed symbioses of text and images - with a direct emotional impact. .... Engelmann mainly worked with photography (for example by Peter Keetman and Ed Callahan ), staged in a functionalist way that was popular in pre-war modern advertising. "

The advertising campaign for Roth-Händle , for which he worked from 1955, is inextricably linked with him. In 1959 the Art Directors Club of New York awarded him the Certificate of Merit . In 1964, his works were shown in the graphics department at documenta III in Kassel . In 1965, his design was selected for the official Kiel Week poster. Michael Engelmann died in a traffic accident in Düsseldorf in 1966. (Document: Erbakte90a (43a) VI292 / 67)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carmen Böker: My hand for your product - the retrospective of the poster designer Michael Engelmann. In: Berliner Zeitung , Feuilleton August 17, 2004

literature

  • documenta III. International exhibition. Catalog: Volume 1: Painting and Sculpture. Volume 2: hand drawings. Volume 3: Industrial Design, Graphics. Kassel, Cologne 1964.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Engelmann, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Engelmann, Pavel Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Prague
DATE OF DEATH January 24, 1966
Place of death Dusseldorf