Karl Michel

Biography

Type designs, illustration, ex-libris. Born Hans Max Carl Michel 6 March 1885 in Leipzig. Studied at the Leipzig Akademie für Graphische Kunst und Buchgewerbe: teachers included: Georg Belwe and Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens; then studied at the Berlin Kunstgewerbemuseum: a teacher included Emil Doepler. 1912-45: taught at the Hochschule für bildenden Künste (later called the Vereinigte Staatsschule für freie und angewandte Kunst), Berlin-Charlottenburg. Designed typefaces ‘Michel-Antiqua’ and ‘Eine schraffierte Antiqua’ (both 1919, Klingspor). In 1927 he was on a committee headed by Rudolf Koch to recommend a writing style for schools in the State of Hesse. A Karl Michel did the wood cut illustrations for the Nonesuch Press Pilgrim’s Progress, 1928.

Writings about

  • Richard Braungart, ‘Karl Michel’, Exlibris, 1923, pp. 1-9
  • Exlibris, Nov. 1927, p. 101
  • DdW, 1927
  • H.K. Frenzel, ‘German posters of 1927’, Gg, v. 2, 1928, pp. 31-59
  • Gg, 1932, pp. 237 (Goethe ex-libris
  • caption mislabelled ‘Wilhelm’), 238
  • Hans Bockwitz, ‘Junge deutsche Büchkunstler’, AfB, Nov. 1934, pp. 699-784, esp. p. 701
  • Eberhard Hölscher, ‘The meaning of exlibris’, Gg, Aug. 1936, pp. 48-53
  • Gg, March 1941, pp. 35-9
  • Vollmer, 1956
  • Elke Schutt-Kehm, ‘Raritäten für Kenner…’ (exlibris), Imprimatur, 1989, pp. 205-24, esp. pp. 213, 214
  • HAH, 1991
  • GC, 2000
  • Benezit, 2006.

Collections

  • Klingspor Museum, Frankfurt a.M.