Pop Art was Hans Ticha’s answer to the propaganda of the GDR. His brightly coloured illustrations with voluminously shaped figures and geometric limbs still illustrate volumes of poetry and children’s books to this day. The exhibition Hans Ticha – Prints 1966-2017 at the Museum für Druckkunst provides an insight into the life’s work of the multi-award-winning painter, graphic artist and book illustrator.
The exhibition presents works from the fields of woodcut, serigraphy, algraphy and lithography until 15 September 2024. It focuses on the special significance of graphic printing techniques. The first presentation of Hans Ticha’s graphic works at the Museum für Druckkunst is a prelude to the anniversary exhibition with which the Büchergilde Gutenberg will celebrate its 100th anniversary at the Museum für Druckkunst from the end of August. Hans Ticha has illustrated numerous volumes of poetry and children’s books for Büchergilde Gutenberg and is still regarded as its illustrator with the highest circulation.
Hans Ticha
Ticha’s work includes paintings, objects, posters, prints and drawings. As a book illustrator for fiction, but above all for children’s and young adult literature, he worked for all major publishers in the GDR and began his collaboration with Büchergilde Gutenberg even before reunification, for which he is still considered the illustrator with the highest circulation. His last illustrated book of poetry, O die Möglichkeiten by Bertolt Brecht, was published in 2022. He has received several awards for his more than 100 illustrated books, most recently the 2022 German Youth Literature Prize.
Museum of Printing Arts
Since its foundation in 1994, the Museum of Printing Arts has dedicated itself to the cultural heritage of printing technology and sees itself as a lively place with a special workshop atmosphere, presenting 550 years of printing and media history on four floors with around 100 functioning machines and presses. The artistic printing techniques of relief, intaglio and planographic printing, which are listed in the German UNESCO Commission’s nationwide list of intangible cultural heritage, are preserved, maintained and communicated. The museum is located in a listed building in the former industrial district of Leipzig-Plagwitz. The four-winged building looks back on over 100 years of tradition as a printing works and is therefore home to one of the last historical printing workshops. The museum’s core collection is based on the Schumacher Gebler Collection, which comprises a unique ensemble of printing presses, lead type and type matrices.
