Gerd Arntz

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Gerd Arntz (1900, Remscheid – 1988, The Hague) was a German Modernist artist and communist, famous for his black and white woodcuts.

Born into a family of merchants, Arntz was educated at a private academy in Düsseldorf and later attended the school of applied arts in Barmen (1921). He acquired the Düsseldorf studio of Otto Dix in 1925, when Dix moved to Berlin. Arntz travelled widely through Europe, and lived in Vienna, Cologne, and Moscow among other cities. From 1926 Otto Neurath sought his collaboration in designing pictograms for the Vienna Method of Pictorial Statistics (Wiener Methode der Bildstatistik; later renamed Isotype). From the beginning of 1929 Arntz worked at the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum (Social and economic museum) directed by Neurath in Vienna. Eventually, Arntz designed around 4000 pictograms. Between 1931 and 1934 he travelled periodically to the Soviet Union (along with Neurath and Marie Reidemeister) in order to help set up the 'All-union institute of pictorial statistics of Soviet construction and economy' (Всесоюзный институт изобразительной статистики советского строительства и хозяйства), commonly abbreviated to IZOSTAT (ИЗОСТАТ). After the brief civil war in Austria in 1934 he emigrated to the Netherlands, joining Neurath and Reidemeister in The Hague, where they continued their collaboration at the International Foundation for Visual Education. Arntz cultivated a wide acquaintance among the artists and political activists of his generation. In 1943, while living in The Hague, he was conscripted into German military service and later was a prisoner of war.[1]


[edit] References

  1. ^ Timothy O. Benson et al., Expressionist Utopias, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2001; pp. 188-9.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft. Bildstatistisches Elementarwerk,, Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut, 1932.


  • Bohnen,Ulli and Kees Vollemans, Politieke prenten tussen twee oorlogen, Nijmegen: Socialistische Uitgeverij Nijmegen, 1973
  • Gerd Arntz, 60 Holzschnitte aus den Jahren 1924 - 1938, Bremen: Galerie Rolf Ohse, 1975
  • Bool, Flip and Broos, Kees,(eds),Gerd Arntz, Kritische grafiek en beeldstatistiek, Kritische Grafik und Bildstatistik, Nijmegen: SUN and Den Haag: Haags Gemeentemuseum, Sunschrift 113, 1976
  • Broos, Kees, Symbolen voor onderwijs en statistiek, 1928 - 1965, Wenen, Moskou, Den Haag, Den Haag: Spruijt, 1979 (?)
  • Stadler, Friedrich (ed.), Arbeiterbildung in der Zwischenkriegszeit, Otto Neurath und sein Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Wien 1925-1935, Politische Grafik von Gerd Arntz und den Konstruktiven, Wien, München: Löcker, 1982. see also:
  • Stadler, Friedrich and Elisabeth Nemeth, eds., Encyclopedia and Utopia, Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1996. and
  • Stadler, Friedrich, Studien zum Wiener Kreis. Frankfurt a. M., 1997
  • Gerd Arntz, Monographie-Reihe Remscheider Künstler, Nr. 2, Remscheid: Stadt Remscheid, 1982
  • Broos, Kees (ed.), Gerd Arntz. De tijd under her mes. Hout- en linoleumsneden 1920-1970, Nijmegen: SUN, 1988, in German:
  • Gerd Arntz, Zeit unterm Messer. Holz- und Linolschnitte 1920-1970,Köln: Leske, 1988
  • (Roth, Lynette), Painting as a Weapon: Progressive Cologne 1920-33/ Seiwert - Hoerle - Arntz, Köln: Walter König, 2008. Catalogue for an exhibition at the Museum Cologne, curated by Lynette Roth.
  • (Friedrich, Julia, ed.), Gerd Arntz, Holzschnitte, Graphische Sammlung, Museum Ludwig, No. 4, Köln: Museum Ludwig, 2008, 20 p. With a short essay by Lynette Roth, Gerd Arntz, Ausdruck in Holz.

[edit] External links

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