7 March 2019 press release

Exhibition opening Monday, 18 March 2019, 19:30

By dedicating an exhibition to the typographer and poster and book designer Jan Tschichold (1902–1974) on the occasion of the 2019 Leipzig Book Fair, the German Museum of Books and Writing at the German National Library is pursuing three objectives:

Firstly, the exhibition commemorates one of the major typographers of the 20th century, whose compositions became graphic-design classics and yet whose overall body of work is shaped by highly contradictory artistic positions. Secondly, the show contributes to celebrating the 100th anniversary of Bauhaus – though never himself a member of the Bauhaus movement, Tschichold is regarded as one of the leading champions of functional or "New Typography". And thirdly, the museum will provide insights into one of its most important collections: the works of Jan Tschichold, kindly bequeathed to the museum.
The exhibition positions Tschichold’s famous pieces from the 1920s within the wider context of his artistic endeavours as a whole. The focus is on Jan Tschichold’s life as a typographer, a career rich in biographical watersheds and radical new beginnings, some of which were occasioned by his exile. The son of a sign painter in Leipzig, Tschichold studied typography at that city’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts from the spring of 1919 onward before visiting the Bauhaus in the mid-1920s, an experience that left him “puzzled and agitated”. He created his designs for the “New Typography” shortly thereafter. He went into exile in Switzerland from 1933 onward and completely turned his back on avant-garde typography, not least because he realised how easily it could be misused in Nazi propaganda. After the war, his work included the redesign of Penguin Books and the creation of corporate designs for major companies.

Using a cross-section of his legacy, the exhibition presents a rich and varied life in the century of typography, and thereby simultaneously resists the myth of Bauhaus’s dominance: although Tschichold’s oft-quoted 1925 treatise "elementary typography" certainly had a century-defining impact that was also key to the typographical work done at the Bauhaus, one cannot do justice to either the critical reception of Bauhaus or to Tschichold himself by regarding this creative period in isolation. Instead, it is the heterogeneity of his typographical solutions and educational writings that make Tschichold one of the great luminaries in the history of typography.

The exhibition was made possible by the exceedingly generous gift from Jan Tschichold’s heirs, who presented the artist’s extensive legacy of work to the German Museum of Books and Writing in 2015. The study-like nature of the documents, which were provided to the museum in 176 boxes (some of them very large), allow us to "glance over the shoulder" of this once-in-a-century typographer. This helps meet the general interest in the history of typography that has arisen as a result of the lightning-fast changes in writing and reading wrought by the digital environment over the years.
 

Wallstein Verlag is publishing a book to accompany the exhibition, titled "Jan Tschichold – ein Jahrhunderttypograf? Blicke in den Nachlass" ("Jan Tschichold – a once-in-a-century typographer? Insights into his legacy"). Edited by Stephanie Jacobs and Patrick Rössler, the book contains many images and can be purchased at the museum’s ticket desk for 24 Euro.

An exhibition on the occasion of the "Bauhaus100" anniversary at the German Museum of Books and Writing at the German National Library, in collaboration with the Seminar on Media and Communication Sciences at the University of Erfurt.

Jan Tschichold – a once-in-a-century typographer? // Insights into his legacy

Temporary Exhibition at the German Museum of Books and Writing
German National Library in Leipzig
19 March to 6 September 2019
Tuesday to Sunday and public holidays 10:00–18:00, Thursday 10:00–20:00
Admission is free.

Exhibition opening: Monday, 18 March 2019, 19:30

Welcome speech: Michael Fernau, Director of the German National Library in Leipzig
Introduction: Dr Stephanie Jacobs, Director of the German Museum of Books and Writing
Axel Thielmann, Tilo Augsten: “Kleines Typographie-Theater für Mars-Bewohner” (“The Little Typography Theatre for Residents of Mars”) and other Bauhaus voices
Sebastian Lörscher: Graphic Recording à la Tschichold

Guided curator’s tour: Prof Dr Patrick Rössler, Erfurt

Additional guided curator’s tour

15 may 2019, 15:00

Accompanying Book

Jan Tschichold - ein Jahrhunderttypograf? Blicke in den Nachlass ("Jan Tschichold – a once-in-a-century typographer? Insights into his legacy")
Edited by Stephanie Jacobs and Patrick Rössler
Wallstein Verlag
Approx.384 pages with illustrations, Brochures with Gate-Folded Covers, 20,0 x 25,0, ISBN: 978-3-8353-3470-0

Background

German Museum of Books and Writing

The book has shaped our culture and civilisation like no other medium. For centuries our knowledge about the world and its peoples has been stored in books. The task of the German Book and Writing Museum of the German National Library is to collect, exhibit and process evidence of book and media history. Founded in 1884 in Leipzig as the Deutsches Buchgewerbemuseum (German Book Trade Museum), it is the oldest museum in the world in the field of book culture, and also one of the most important with regard to the scope and quality of its holdings. The museum interlinks its holdings through national and international cooperative projects and feeds them into the widest possible range of academic disciplines.

Contact person

Stephanie Jacobs