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Fritz Eichenberg
1901–1990
BirthplaceCologne, Germany
Death placePeace Dale, Rhode Island, United States of America
BiographyConsidered America's pre-eminent creator of woodcut engravings, Fritz Eichenberg is best known for his powerful illustrations for more than one hundred literary classics and children's books. A native of Cologne, Germany, Eichenberg was deeply influenced by the ancient city's artistic traditions, particularly in wood carving, and by his first-hand experience of aerial bombardment during World War I. In 1918, at the age of seventeen, he began working as an apprentice lithographer for a publishing company while attending Cologne's School of Applied Arts. Between 1921 and 1923, he studied with noted book illustrator Hugo Steiner-Prag (1880-1945) at the Staatliche Akademie für graphishe Künste und Buchgewerbe (State Academy of Graphic Arts and Book Craft) in Leipzig, where he learned wood engraving.
Eichenberg made his first book illustrations in 1922, for an edition of the German folk story Till Eulenspiegel, and went on to illustrate novels by Fyodor Dostoevsky and Jonathan Swift. The following year, he moved to Berlin to work as a newspaper and magazine artist-reporter, specializing in political and social satire. A convinced pacifist, Eichenberg was of Jewish descent and became an outspoken critic of the rising fascist movement. In 1933, as the Nazi regime came to power in Germany, he traveled on assignment to Latin America and the United States, where he covered the World's Fair in Chicago and considered emigrating. That year, Eichenberg arrived with his family in New York City, which would remain his home. His first prints made in America recorded his impressions of Manhattan. In 1935, he made political cartoons for The Nation, and he spent eighteen months working for the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration. From 1935 to 1945, Eichenberg taught graphic arts and illustration at the New School for Social Research, which hosted his first solo exhibition in 1937.
The publication in 1937 of Puss in Boots with Eichenberg's illustrations led to lucrative commissions from American publishers. Eichenberg subsequently illustrated literary works by Charlotte and Emily Brontë, Dostoyevsky, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy and other writers whose penchant for fantasy and intense emotion dovetailed with his own dramatic graphic style; he also illustrated his own writings and made fine print editions. In 1949, eight years after becoming an American citizen, Eichenberg was elected to the National Academy of Design; he regularly exhibited there and elsewhere. In 1956, after nine years of teaching at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, Eichenberg founded the Pratt Graphic Art Center, serving as its director until 1972. He established Artists Proof, the Center's printmaking journal, in 1961, and served as its chief editor. Between 1966 and 1971, he taught art at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston. He compiled The Art of the Print: Masterpieces, History, Techniques (New York, 1976), a major book surveying the history of printmaking. Late in his career, Eichenberg was awarded six honorary degrees in recognition of his prowess as a printmaker, illustrator, and educator.
Eichenberg made his first book illustrations in 1922, for an edition of the German folk story Till Eulenspiegel, and went on to illustrate novels by Fyodor Dostoevsky and Jonathan Swift. The following year, he moved to Berlin to work as a newspaper and magazine artist-reporter, specializing in political and social satire. A convinced pacifist, Eichenberg was of Jewish descent and became an outspoken critic of the rising fascist movement. In 1933, as the Nazi regime came to power in Germany, he traveled on assignment to Latin America and the United States, where he covered the World's Fair in Chicago and considered emigrating. That year, Eichenberg arrived with his family in New York City, which would remain his home. His first prints made in America recorded his impressions of Manhattan. In 1935, he made political cartoons for The Nation, and he spent eighteen months working for the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration. From 1935 to 1945, Eichenberg taught graphic arts and illustration at the New School for Social Research, which hosted his first solo exhibition in 1937.
The publication in 1937 of Puss in Boots with Eichenberg's illustrations led to lucrative commissions from American publishers. Eichenberg subsequently illustrated literary works by Charlotte and Emily Brontë, Dostoyevsky, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy and other writers whose penchant for fantasy and intense emotion dovetailed with his own dramatic graphic style; he also illustrated his own writings and made fine print editions. In 1949, eight years after becoming an American citizen, Eichenberg was elected to the National Academy of Design; he regularly exhibited there and elsewhere. In 1956, after nine years of teaching at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, Eichenberg founded the Pratt Graphic Art Center, serving as its director until 1972. He established Artists Proof, the Center's printmaking journal, in 1961, and served as its chief editor. Between 1966 and 1971, he taught art at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston. He compiled The Art of the Print: Masterpieces, History, Techniques (New York, 1976), a major book surveying the history of printmaking. Late in his career, Eichenberg was awarded six honorary degrees in recognition of his prowess as a printmaker, illustrator, and educator.