Heinrich Ilgenfritz

Biography

Engravings, book jackets. Born 16 April 1889 (or 1899) in Nuremberg. Trained as engraver. 1918-19: military service. 1922-7: designer in Flensburg, Kiel and Bremen; design of jewellery and silver; worked in Fischerhude and Worpswede with Otto Modersohn and Heinrich Vogeler. 1927: studied in Paris. 1928-30: studied at the Kassel Kunstakademie. 1930: awarded Dürer Prize of the City of Nuremberg. 1932-5: studied at the Vereinigte Staatschulen für freie und angewandte Kunst, Berlin: teachers included G.W. Rössner and Hans Meid. 1935-45: military service as map engraver (calligrapher). ?His work was declared ‘degenerate’ by the Nazis? but he was appointed head of the Schule für Graphische Kunst, Berlin-Oberschöneweide. 1946-51: taught at the Hochschule für bildende und angewandte Kunst, Berlin-Weissensee. 1948: designed first East German (DDR) postage stamp. 1951-5: director of the Fachschule für Grafik, Druck und Werbung, Berlin-Schöneweide. 1956-61: taught at the Hochschule für Graphik und Buchkunst, Leipzig. From 1961: freelance. Died 27 May 1969 in Kleinmachnow near Potsdam.

Writings by

  • Der Kupferstich, Dresden: Verlag der Kunst, 1938
  • ‘Sowjetische Plakatkunst’ (Soviet posters), Druck und Papier, Dec. 1953, pp. 183-6
  • ‘Neujahrsgrafik’, Bildende Kunst, 1963, 1, pp. 32-5.

Writings about

  • Traugott Schalcher, ‘Der Kupferstecher H. Ilgenfritz’, Gg, May 1939, pp. 25-30
  • Vollmer, 1955
  • Renate Wenger, ‘Der Kupferstecher Heinrich Ilgenfritz’, Bildende Kunst, 1962, 12, pp. 635-9
  • Norbert H. Ott, ‘Heinrich Ilgenfritz’ (obituary), EuG, 1969, pp. 46-7
  • Günter Hess, ‘In memoriam Heinrich Ilgenfritz’, Marginalien, 1970, v. 38, pp. 21-6
  • Hans Schulze, ‘Heinrich Ilgenfritz 1899-1969’, EuG, 1971, pp. 17-20
  • MGD, 1992
  • www. Artinfo-international.com.

Collections

  • Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
  • Preussicher Kulturbesitz, Berlin
  • Graphische Sammlung, Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig
  • Buch- und Schriftenmuseum, Deutsche Bücherei, Leipzig
  • Albertina, Vienna
  • Graphische Sammlung, Ermitage, St Petersburg. (See www site above for full list.)

Exhibitions

  • Chicago, 1935, 1937
  • Galerie in Rathaus Treptow, Berlin, 1995.