Zeitausschnitte. Fotomontagen 1918-1938

»Between 1930 and 1938, Berlin-born John Heartfield, whose given name was Helmut Herzfeld, created political photomontages; today, they can be regarded as symbols of the fall of the Weimar Republic and Hitler’s dictatorship. A bitter opponent of the National Socialists, the virtuoso photo editor of the front pages of the Arbeiter Illustrierten Zeitung lighted on images that were often astonishingly clear-sighted and powerful.

The book draws upon the artist’s own works, some of which were not generally available until 1989, and also sheds some light on what was—at least from today’s vantage point—his somewhat too unreserved support of the Communist Party. The early Dadaist years, his friendship with George Grosz, and the legendary book covers Heartfield designed in the twenties for the Malik Verlag, which he founded with his brother Wieland, round off the volume.«

This is my second book that shows the work of a Dada montages artist. Since Heartfield’s work is really strong and political, it was not easy at all to find a satisfying solution for the layout. For me, his work deserves an also powerful and in a way disturbing performance.

I chose the beautiful Memphis (with a special rounded A for the headlines and captions) to reflect the bookdesign of the 20ies and 30ies.

The page nubers are taken from the stencil typeface PTL Lore.

Here are some samples of the spreads:

Thanks a lot to the curator Freya Mülhaupt and the great team of Hatje Cantz, who made this project possible and to my reliable intern Hannes Aechter.

The catalogue is available at Hatje Cantz

German
2009. 176 pp., ca. 230 ills., 144 in color
23,00 x 27,00 cm
hardcover

We also designed the exhibition posters for the Berlinische Galerie.