FRIEDRICH VORDEMBERGE-GILDEWART
TYPOGRAPHIE UND WERBEGESTALTUNG
[TYPOGRAPHIE KANN UNTER UMSTANDEN KUNST SEIN]
Herbert Spencer [essay]
Herbert Spencer [essay]: FRIEDRICH VORDEMBERGE-GILDEWART: TYPOGRAPHIE UND WERBEGESTALTUNG. [TYPOGRAPHIE KANN UNTER UMSTANDEN KUNST SEIN]. Wiesbaden: Landesmuseum Wiesbaden, 1990. A near-fine original exhibition catalog in stiff, printed french-folded wrappers. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print.
9.5 x 11.5 softcover catalog with 338 pages and 500 plates and text illustrations of Vordemberge-Gildewart’s avant-garde typographic design and advertising work from the late 1920s to early 1960s. Easily the most comprehensive single-volume conspectus of Vordemberge-Gildewart’s graphic design work ever assembled. I am a huge fan of this work, and there are many examples presented herein that I have never seen before. Enough said.
This exhibition originated at the Landesmuseum Wiesbaden from May 6 to July 8 1990, then traveled to the Sprengel Museum Hannover, from November 1990 to February 1991, then to the Museum Fur Gestaltung Zurich, April-June 1991. The catalog includes essays by Dietrich Helms, Jean Leering, Michael Erlhoff, Arta Valstar-Verhoff, and Eva von Seckendorff.
Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart (1899-1962) was a German Neo-plasticist (De Stijl) painter. He was one of the first painters to work for his entire career within an abstract style. He studied architecture, interior design and sculpture Hanover School of Art and the Technical College, Hanover. In 1924 he formed the abstract art group Gruppe K in Hanover with Hans Nitzschke and joined Der Sturm in Berlin. After meeting Theo Van Doesburg, Kurt Schwitters and Hans Arp, he became a member of De Stijl in 1925. Together with Kurt Schwitters and Carl Buchheister he formed the 'Abstrakten Hannover' group in 1927. He was a member of a number of other artistic groups including: the Cercle et Carré, 1930, Paris and was a founding member of Abstraction-Création (1931), also in Paris. In 1938 he was exhibited in the infamous Degenerate Art exhibition, most of his works were confiscated and he was forced to leave Germany for the Netherlands.
It was as director of visual design at Hochscule für Gestaltung in Ulm, that he worked with avantgarde artists of a younger generation, such as Max Bill and Richard Paul Lohse. In these years Vordemberge-Gildewart became a key figure in the European modern art scene. He died in Ulm in 1962.