Ottmar Premstaller

Ottmar Premstaller at the opening of an ex-libris exhibition in the Perg City and Local History Museum in May 2011

Ottmar Premstaller (born January 25, 1927 in Unterweißbach ; † March 18, 2018 in Linz ) was a retired veterinarian , calligrapher , graphic artist , bookplate expert and publisher from Upper Austria , living in St. Georgen an der Gusen .

Life

Ottmar Premstaller attended the secondary school in Linz , studied veterinary medicine at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna from 1947 to 1953 and attended evening courses in font design with O. Binder in Linz. He made his first bookplate (book owner's mark) in 1946.

Since then, in addition to his professional activity as a practical veterinarian in St. Georgen an der Gusen, between 1953 and 1988, he has been closely connected to ex-libris and book art as an artist , collector, member and from 1993 to 2002 also chairman of the Austrian Ex-libris Society. In 2002 he was also president of the international umbrella association of bookplate societies, which unite people across all language, culture and mentality differences in their enthusiasm for small works of art. For years he was the designer of the yearbooks of the Austrian Ex-Libris Society, which ultimately appointed him its only honorary president to date.

Up to his 80th birthday, his graphic works comprised 1,066 bookplates and graphics as well as 187 books, mainly in wood and linocut . His own paper, designed in 2003, is an expression of his intensive occupation as an artist and publisher with the written / typesetting word. It stores the Tower of Babel, handed down in the Bible, with the beginning of the Gospel of John and thus stimulates the viewer to ask a variety of questions about the origin and development of language and writing, but also about the possibilities and limits of successful communication.

In the bookplate world, Premstaler is regarded as a great personality as a collector, long-standing motor and president of the Austrian Exlibris Society, as an organizer of conferences, congresses and exhibitions, as an artist who has created a large number of book-appropriate bookplates and bibliophile books.

Small graphic

Premstaller got to know the small graphics through the cultural magazine “Der getreue Eckart” published by Bruno Brehm during the Second World War and found an ideal balance to his often hard physical work as a country veterinarian .

Since 1947 he has been busy with the production of printing templates , which he cut in long wood, linoleum and at the suggestion of a Czech friend in the Thelon floor covering, partly with broken razor blades due to a lack of suitable tools .

Premstaller's collection of all styles amounts to more than 1200 works, whereby the typeface and the typeface are almost always the basis and focus of his designs, supplemented if desired by the pictorial in the style as well as written, mostly linear.

St. George's Press

A significant expansion of his field of work resulted for Premstaller through the purchase of an old platen printing press and thus usable letters made of lead . He founded the St. Georgs-Presse, a small publishing house that limited itself to small editions. At the beginning, block books were created , later hand -written editions, mostly in collaboration with authors and graphic artists . Usually an edition of 200 pieces was produced, whereby he learned the necessary skills such as setting, printing and binding autodidactically through intensive occupation.

Bookplate - small graphics collection

The collection of small graphic works over a period of more than six decades provides a true picture of the development of the bookplate in the period after the Second World War. Premstaller knew many of the artists personally and some were among his friends who helped him through difficult times. 506 sheets were made for him by others.

Premstaller was a volunteer and a member of the association of the "Bartlhaus" Museum of Writing and Local History, founded in 1992 in Pettenbach, and since 1993 has been the supervisor of the ex-libris cabinet there. In 2010 the museum's annual exhibition was dedicated to his work.

Works

• as publisher: Österreichische Schriftexlibris. St. Georgs-Presse, 1982.
• Toni Hofer. 1st edition. St. Georgs-Presse, 1983.
• Otto Feil. 1984.
• as editor: Austrian Yearbook for Ex Libris and Commercial Graphics. various years between 1984 and 1999.
• The bookplate in Upper Austria today. In: Upper Austrian homeland sheets. 48th volume, issue 3, 1994, p. 215ff, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at
• Gerhard Brandl , Ottmar Premstaller: Erich Schöner, an ex-libris artist from the Wachau. Illustrated book. Austrian Bookplate Society, Vienna 1998.
• Karlgeorg Hoefer: Pointed brush alphabets based on designs by Karlgeorg Hoefer cut into linoleum by Ottmar Premstaller. Illustrated book. St. Georgs-Presse, 2000.
• Bookplate by Birgit Göbel . Nativity collection. 2002.
• This is where the wine is locked up. St. Georgs-Presse, 2006.
• Weinwächter press house doors. St. Georgs-Presse, 2006.
• Max Kislinger. 2007.
• Angel. St. Georgs-Presse, 2008.

Publishing activity

• Christoph Janacs, book publisher from 1998 to 2008 (including Templo Mayor, Brunnennacht, meteorites, Unrelated to the shadow, night watch, Oberplan, owls)

Awards

• Walter von zur Westen Medal of the German Ex-Libris Society (1995)
• Winner of culture award from the market town of St. Georgen an der Gusen (1999)
• Honored by the International Ex-Libris Association (2004)

literature

• Werner Pfeiler, Heinrich Preuss, Manfred Neureiter, Ernst Schumacher: Florilegium - Hommage a Dr. Ottmar Premstaller. German Exlibris Society, publisher: Manfred Neureiter. Verlag Konstanz, 1997, ISBN 3-925300-14-7 .
• Karl F. Stock: Ottmar Premstaller. Private printing company KFStock, Graz 2006.
• Claudia Karolyi: Graphics as a bridge to the world (a portrait of the ex-libris and book artist Ottmar Premstaller). In: Wiener Kunsthefte, journal for printmaking. No. 4, December 2002, Vienna 2002, pp. 20f.
• Peter Labuhn: Ottmar Premstaller - A life for the bookplate. Special publication by the Austrian Ex-Libris Society. Vienna 2009.

Web links

• Literature by and about Ottmar Premstaller in the catalog of the German National Library
• Folder from the Bartlhaus Font Museum (PDF; 3.0 MB)
• Bartlhaus

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ex Libris Ottmar Premstaller, 2003, Österreichische Nationalbank ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Review ( memento of the original from October 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.7 MB) Peter Labuhn: Ottmar Premstaller - A life for ex-libris , Vienna 2009.