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Hans-Georg Rauch: Rauchzeichen - Signed by the Artist
***
The German artist Hans-Georg Rauch (1939 - 1993) was born in Berlin a few months before the burst of World War II and grew up surrounded by the physical and moral remaining after the destruction of Germany in that War. Rauch drew from his experience a bizarre yet antic vision of man and his rituals but his humorous cartoons and caricatures (Rauch, never saw himself as a painter) were and still are almost always painful - he clearly sees the essence behind the superficial everyday life and business of human beings.
Rauch's first cartoon book, Rauchzeichen which is displayed here in front of you, was published in 1969. The title of the book is a pun on Rauch's name and the German word Rauchzeichen which means a smoke signal. And indeed, the smoke signal became Rauch's icon and an ultimate presenter of the unique way he puts the agonizing details into his drawings - you are invited to zoom into the drawing of the cover of the book and see the thousands of individual figures he depicted - this is one of a kind art book.
Hans-Georg Rauch: Rauchzeichen
Hans-Georg Rauch: Rauchzeichen - the drawing on the front cover of the book - thousands of individual figures in the smoke
הנס גאורג ראוך Hans-Georg Rauch נולד בברלין ב- 1939, בן בלתי חוקי שלא התקבל בעין יפה ע"י משפחתו, התגלגל במוסדות יתומים ורק לאחר התערבות נמרצת של דודתו חזר או הוחזר למשפחה וגודל בבית סבו בדרום סקסוניה - פתיחה קשה. ראוך כתב:
הקריירה שלי החלה ב-21 ביולי 1939, כבר אז הייתי צריך למחות בקול גדול אבל המחאה עדיין לא היתה באופנה. הנקמה הגיעה מאוחר יותר - התחלתי לצייר
את נערותו עבר ראוך בגרמניה המתאוששת מחורבותיה. כשהתבגר שירת שנה בצבא ואחר כך
למד, או ליתר דיוק היה רשום כסטודנט בבית ספר לאמנות בהמבורג. החל מאמצע שנות ה-60
פירסם קריקטורות בעיתונים ושבועונים גרמניים ובינלאומיים. הספר המוצג כאן לפניכם
שהודפס ב-1969 הוא הראשון שהוציא לאור. השם ראוכזישן Rauchzeichen - הוא משחק מילים
בין שמו ראוך Rauch לבין
המילה Rauchzeichen שפרושה בגרמנית
איתות באמצעות סימני עשן.
הקוראים של Rauchzeichen הלכו שבי אחר הדייקנות
הקפדנית שברישומים שנעשו בעט ציפורן
דקיקה. ראוך צייר במומחיות ובסבלנות שלא רואים כמותן היום.
Hans-Georg Rauch signature in pen on the first page of Rauchzeichen
Hans-Georg Rauch "Biography"
Hans-Georg Rauch started his life as an illegitimate baby who was rejected by his family and placed in an institution for abandoned children. Later, after the intervention of his aunt, he was returned to his family and lived under the supervision of his grandfather. Most of his youth he served as a "professional dropout" in various educational institutes. This is how Rauch presents his biography and life story:
My career began on the 21th of June 1939 - I should have protested loudly then, but protest was not yet fashionable. Later I took my revenge as I began to draw. My first drawing exercises were completely exhausted and nonbinding abstracts - aesthetically questionable experiments on wall coverings, carpets, rugs and table cloths.
The conflicts I had had with my teachers and tutors had not ceased although I changed the subjects and media of my drawings. There were some considerable differences between me and my math teacher, a lovely person by the way, regarding the ominous depictions of naked ladies, who juggled in my workbooks with algebra formulas but all in all, in a three-year apprenticeship, I successfully learned how to knock nails straight and insisted on passing the final exam with a grade of "good".
Then, I learned how to stand and march and kill. Thus, the mental training necessary for being a cartoonist was completed. Just as a precaution, I played truant in Hamburg for four semesters at the College of Fine Arts and tried to quietly progress into humanity, but without success. I fell back and was asked to make this book. Please send complaints, time bombs and threatening letters directly to: c/o Editorial Nebelspalter CH-9400 Rorschach.
Hans-Georg Rauch ink drawings are so unusual in their finesse and extreme accuracy - a total perfection which would hardly be possible today (they don't make those Pelikan extra fine nibs and Fount India, black, opaque ink anymore). His master representations of crowds as well as Baroque and contemporary architecture, are based on a thin line which acquires a life of its own and becomes a gossamer thread that weaves, knits and also undoes the work, giving it a different meaning.
Hans-Georg Rauch - Lacework
tapestry
קריקטוריסט מקצועי בעל תודעה פוליטית וחברתית, שיש לו מה להגיד ויחד עם זאת יודע לצייר הוא תופעה נדירה. אצל ראוך הילדות הקשה, הסביבה הספוגה במוראות המלחמה והכשרון המופלא לאחוז בעט הציפורן עשו את שלהם וכך הבשיל לו הנס גאורג ראוך, הסטיריקן המעודן מכולם - מסטר אמיתי בעל יכולת התמדה וכישרון שרק במבט קרוב ומעמיק אתה חש את העצמה של מה שהוא ליהטט על הנייר: קבוצה של פועלים מפרקת הר ובונה בניין חדש מהחלקים, קצין צבא מקבל מדליית הצטיינות העשויה משרידי אניית מלחמה שטבעה, ואמן המגלף את אדני העץ של מסילת הרכבת האינסופית כמו בציור שלפניכם.
Hans-Georg Rauch - Carved Railroad - it is all a matter of timing
Good satirical artists are rare. It is common enough to have one talent, but a good political cartoonist requires two: a drawing talent and a talent for thinking up ideas. This combination is so usual that many painters who can do funny drawings must hire idea men to think up for them. Hans-Georg Rauch is superior in all fronts: an extremely precise and super talented painter, a keen observer and a creative visual inventor with high social consciousness.
Rauch studied from 1961 to 1963 in an art school in
Hamburg and shortly afterwards began to publish cartoons in German and international
newspapers such as
Der Spiegel,
Stern
,Look
,The
Observer and
The
New York Times. The
Twen magazine entitled him as follows - name: Hans-Georg Rauch, rank:
Caricaturist.
הנס גאורג ראוך הלך עד הסוף עם הפרטים הקטנים - רווי הומור אך גם ספוגים בכאב. באחד מציוריו מופיעות למעלה מ-5000 דמויות אדם מיניאטוריות על מגרש כדור רגל. ראו בהגדלה גדולה Extra Zoom את הרישום המופלא של העשן המיתמר שעל כריכת הספר. אין עשן בלי אש.
Rauchzeichen Mit einem Nachwort von Manuel Gasser - the first art book of Hans-Georg Rauch - Where there is smoke there is fire
Hans-Georg Rauch has devoted much of his drawing and most of his own life with his wife Ursula, to support the peace movements worldwide. His rare publications became coveted collectible items because of the issues he dealt with: nuclear power, environmental protection, racism, poverty and wealth which are relevant today more than ever. The epilogue to this book Uber die Schwierigkeit, Rauchzeichen zu entziffern - About the difficulty to decipher smoke signals - was scholarly written by the Swiss journalist and magazine editor Manuel Gasser and explains everything :-)
Hardcover: 72 pages of illustrations
Publisher: Nebelspalter-Verlag, Rorschach, Switzerland; First Edition
(1969) - Signed by the artist
Language: German - with an afterword by Manuel Gasser.
Price: Call
References:
Saul Steinberg - The Inspector
© Dan Levy - Art Pane Home of Art Books
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