Anton Stankowski - Training with Max Burchartz; first theoretical considerations
Anton Stankowski was born in Gelsenkirchen on 18th June 1906. After completing several years as an apprentice and journeyman decorator and church painter from 1921 to 1926, he enrolled as a student at the Folkwang University of Arts in Essen in 1927. There he studied graphics, typography and even photography under Max Burchartz - a novelty amongst the courses on offer at the time – and Stankowski created his first commercial graphic works for the Canis agency run by his teacher Burchartz. In 1929, Anton Stankowski moved to Zurich, where he found employment in Max Dalang's renowned advertising agency. In his search for new approaches, he developed the so-called Constructive Graphic Art and studied various theories of design in detail. During this time, he cultivated a lively exchange with a cultural circle that included such great names as Max Bill, Hans Coray, Hans Fischli, Richard Paul Lohse, Ernst A. Heiniger, Herbert Matter, Hans Neuburg and others.
Gestaltungslehre (design theory) as a pioneering composition; first successes
During these extremely fruitful years, Anton Stankowski completed his famous Gestaltungslehre, in which he set out his understanding of the fundamental forms of expression. In 1934, he lost his Swiss work and residence permit and had to return to Germany, but the contacts he had already made allowed him to continue working secretly from Lörrach for clients in Switzerland. In 1938, he opened his own graphic design agency in Stuttgart, but soon had to serve as a soldier in the Second World War, where he ended up in Soviet captivity, returning only in 1948. Anton Stankowski then worked for Stuttgarter Illustrierte as a graphic designer, photographer and editor, and in 1951 opened his own studio in a good location on the Killesberg. In Stuttgart, he gathered a new circle of artists around him, including Willi Baumeister, Max Bense, Egon Eiermann and Mia Seeger.
Iconic and timeless design for numerous global brands
Anton Stankowski owed his preference for pure form, the circle, square and line, for colour and surface to the Russian Constructivists such as El Lissitzky. He constructed his graphics from these elements, guided by the principle that any distinction between free and applied art was a forced, artificial one: Stankowski did not care whether he was creating art or design - in his eyes it just had to be good. And most of his works were good, if not brilliant, like the famous Deutsche Bank logo, which he composed from a square and a slash, concise and simple. Other large companies such as Rewe, Iduna, Viessmann and Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft were also among his clients. In 1972, Stankowski worked together with Karl Duschek for the first time, whom he eventually left in charge of the joint graphics agency in order to devote more time to the visual arts. The experience he gained as a graphic designer always flowed into his work as a sculptor and painter and vice versa. The work of the documenta participant and multiple award-winning artist Anton Stankowski is timeless and has lost none of its fascination to this day.
Anton Stankowski died on 11th December 1998 in Esslingen am Neckar.
Anton Stankowski - Works that have already been sold at Kunsthaus Lempertz:
