German book illustrations, art for art's sake

German book illustrations, art for art's sake

Christina Schott, Contributor, Jakarta

There is a difference between book illustrations that just
supplement a text, and those that complete a text. The
illustrations of Berliner Handpresse (Berlin Handpress) belong
definitely to the second category: They are real works of art
that tell their own stories.

An exhibition that opened on Sunday night in the Goethe-Haus
at Jl. Sam Ratulangi 9-15, Menteng, Central Jakarta, and will run
until June 12, gives visitors a close look at these German gems
of book art: from vivid and mind-boggling figures over cryptic
designs to the colorful animals of children's books.

The Berliner Handpresse was founded in West Berlin in 1961 by
Wolfgang Joerg and Erich Schoenig, two art students from southern
Germany who shared a passion for painting and a love for the
traditional art of bookmaking. Armed only with creativity, they
started an artistic alliance for printing new and old texts
illustrated with original graphics.

Their original plan of using woodcuts failed because of a lack
of money. So they switched to the cheaper technique of linoleum
print. Linoleum is a synthetic material, much smoother than wood,
which was once described as a way "against the overly refined
art, but favoring the unaffected, the genuine" by Walther
Koschatzky, former director of the famous Vienna graphic arts
collection Albertina.

With the perspective of looking back at the work of more than
40 years, the early poverty of the Handpresse that prevented the
use of woodcuts can be seen as a stroke of luck. There are few
other examples of such perfect and creative use of linoleum
prints.

From the beginning the illustrations of the Berliner
Handpresse were characterized by the interaction of the very
different styles of the artists: While Erich Schoenig sketched
rather cool and abstract pictures, Wolfgang Joerg created more
energetic and crude, almost indecent prints.

In 1965, Wolfgang Joerg's wife, Ingrid, who grew up in East
German city of Brandenburg, joined the company. With her entrance
the era of mainly black-and-white prints ended, as she started
publishing children's books with intensively colored pictures.

Nevertheless, Ingrid never gave into the temptation to create
for her young public a pleasant and picturesque world. She never
created an unrealistic fairy-tale land, but always maintained a
a kind of menacing touch in her illustrations -- though they are,
with all their details, always a joy for the observer.

These opposing -- and therefore very productive -- accents
among the Handpresse members continued even after Schoenig's
death in 1989, which marked the beginning of a new era for the
small arts studio: Since then a number of well-known German
illustrators, such as Klaus Ensikat and Manfred Bofinger, have
worked as guest artists at Berliner Handpresse.

Due to the quality of their work, not only the illustrations
but also the texts, this tiny Berlin publishing house soon became
a meeting point for authors from West and East Germany. And in a
departure from how things are usually done, it is not the writer
who chooses the illustrator, but the illustrator who chooses the
writer.

"It is an honor to be accepted in their program," says German
writer Felicitas Hoppe, who has worked with the Joergs since 1996
and is at the moment traveling together with them through Java.

In its first years the Berliner Handpresse looked mainly for
Baroque texts, and was well supported by the West Berlin Academy
of Arts, which opened its archive to the illustrators. Later on
in the '70s and '80s, modern literature became more prominent in
their program. By editing previously unpublished texts by Oedin
von Horvath, Ferdinand Bruckner and Kurt Schwitters -- all of
them banned during the Third Reich -- the Handpresse suddenly
gained a lot of attention outside of Berlin.

Even if these books were banned in the former German
Democratic Republic, East German writers knew how to find their
way to this unique publishing house, which was offered texts by
such well-known authors as Ernst Jandl, Sarah Kirsch and Stefan
Heym.

Due to this, the Berliner Handpresse soon fell under the
suspicion of the East German State Security Policy, who watched
the Handpresse until the fall of the Berlin Wall. But neither the
Joergs nor Erich Schoenig chose authors with a view to politics.
Rather they chose, and continue to choose, authors whose texts
fit their program and ideas.

Despite the financial and logistical problems, the Joergs
continue with their own special way of publishing. They cannot
even imagine drawing for advertisements or doing commercial
designs. And to the disappointment of many fans they have never
increased the number of copies they print, so each book they
publish has a limited issue of 300; or 100 for children's books.

"We don't want to change anything," says Ingrid Joerg, whose
daughter was born on the same day the Berliner Handpresse was
founded. "This means our entire life."
Berliner Handpresse and Hoppe will give a workshop for artists
of Taring Padi at ISI Yogyakarta from June 10 to June 14.

Hoppe will hold a public discussion on Thursday, June 6, with
Indonesian writer Ayu Utami about the creative process at Goethe-
Haus at 8 p.m.