Uwe Loesch. Posters. Laureate of Jan Lenica Award 2013 National Museum in Poznan, Poland 27 November – 22 January 2017 Opening Sunday November 27, 2016 12:00 This web exhibition accompanies a coming award ceremony and poster exhibition at the National Museum in Poznan, Poland. Text and pictures were kindly provided by Irena Przymus, Curator of the Galerie of Poster & Design at the National Museum. Read more

Exhibition poster by Uwe Loesch

Uwe Loesch, 2006

Carl Humann - Der Entdecker von Pergamon, Ruhrlandmuseum, Museumszentrum Essen, 1989 Die Gegenwart der Dinge. 100 Jahre Ruhrlandmuseum Essen, 2004 Exchange, 2010 Game over, 2002 Little Boy, 1994

The Jan Lenica Award 2016 is the year of the 5th jubilee edition of the Jan Lenica Award. The Award itself was established in 2001 by the National Museum in Poznan after the death of the eminent artist after which it is named, one of the founders and major representatives of the Polish poster school, a native of Poznan, tied with the Poznan Museum by long and cordial bonds. The Award goes to prominent graphic artists from around the globe, with an established artistic personality, representing a similar position as that characteristic of Lenica, i.e. pushing beyond the narrowly-construed framework of the profession of a graphic designer. The previous laureates of the Lenica Award include: Michel Bouvet, France (2002), Gunter Rambow, Germany (2004), Alain Le Quernec, France (2006), Ralph Schraivogel, Switzerland (2009), Uwe Loesch, Germany (2013). Uwe Loesch The proposals put forth by Loesch demonstrate an atypical approach to both the subject matter and the very concept of the poster. Combining typography and photography, word and image, the artist creates visual messages, which make a modest use of graphic media and show an independence of expressing ideas. The artist’s principal objective is not so much a free experiment with form and the satisfaction of the viewer’s aesthetic needs, but rather – via the poster, where text and image merge into a single, powerful visual stimulus – to attract attention, pique curiosity and provoke the recipient to continue the communication initiated by an image. On the face of it, Uwe Loesch uses well-established techniques, taps into the experience of his predecessors and applies the form and rhetoric of classical graphic design. In reality, however, his designs exemplify a process of deconstructing traditional conventions of imagery and culturally-sanctioned perception patterns. His activities give rise to works which, due to their uniqueness and unconventional solutions used, do not easily yield to interpretation by means of a set of standards commonly adopted for this discipline. The words: “As a poster designer I feel obliged to give my time a new expression in design” convey one of the most intriguing artistic properties of our time in the field of poster art, i.e. an author conscious of his aim from the very start. The exhibition The monograph exhibition of Uwe Loesch at the National Museum in Poznan is a comprehensive show of nearly fifty years of the artist’s oeuvre in this area of design and includes 72 works, including large-sized printouts designed for all sorts of socio-political activities in the public space. Apart from posters, Loesch can boast of numerous magnificent design projects in the field of broadly-interpreted visual communication. His graphic design of journals and magazines, books, catalogues, and calendars have aroused admiration and earned him recognition, as witnessed by numerous prestigious awards and distinctions. Furthermore, in his innovative designs related to corporate identity, the designer boldly works ahead of his time, ushering in new directions of development of this field. Selected examples of such work will be displayed at the exhibition as electronic presentations prepared by the author. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue of the artist’s work, with an essay characterising his oeuvre and a detailed list of his awards and distinctions, bibliography, as well as a list of his solo and collective shows. Biography Uwe Loesch was born in 1943 in Dresden. In 1958 he settled down in Düsseldorf, where between 1964–1968 he studied graphic design at the Peter Behrens Academy. In 1968 he established his own design studio in Düsseldorf: Arbeitsgemeinschaft für visuelle und verbale Kommunikation (Studio for visual and verbal communication). At present he lives and works in Neandertal near Düsseldorf. He is active in the design of posters, corporate design and design for industry, publishing houses, cultural and political institutions. In 1968 he designed his first poster for the political and literary cabaret Das Kom(m)ödchen in Düsseldorf, with which he collaborated for the next dozen or so years. He moreover published Plakate – Zeitzeichen (Sign of the Time), which he defines as political interferences. Most of his posters are part of comprehensive campaigns for enterprises, cultural institutions, ministries, fairs, and exhibitions in renowned museums. Among others, he has cooperated for many years with the Ruhrlandmuseum in Essen and the Klingspor Museum in Offenbach. In 1984 his poster punctum. was installed in the permanent exhibit of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Between 1974–1984 he was a lecturer at the Editorial Design in Fachhochschule, Düsseldorf, and since 1985 a professor at the Fachbereich Design. In 1990 he succeeded Willy Fleckhaus as a professor at the Communication Design Department at the Bergische University of Wuppertal, where he worked until 2008. Since 2002 he has been the President of the German chapter of the AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale). A member of Type Directors Club, New York, of the German section of the ADC (Art Directors Club) and of the German Academy of Photography in Leinfelden. A jury member at international poster biennales in Warsaw, Lahti, Brno, Fort Collins / Colorado, Toyama, Chaumont, Moscow, Ningbo, and Hangzhou. Since 1996 an honorary member of the International Poster Biennale in Warsaw. He has been invited by academies and universities around the globe, e.g. in China, Hangzhou and Hong Kong where he has held lectures and workshops. The work of Uwe Loesch has been recently presented around the world at over 30 solo exhibitions. He is the winner of many awards at biennales and other international poster reviews, with include two Grand Prix in Lahti, first prize in Fort Collins, Gold Medal in Brno and Warsaw, Grand Prix in Essen. In 2008 he received the Gutenberg Prize of Leipzig, and in 2013, in recognition of his entire oeuvre, he was awarded the prestigious Designpreis der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Irena Przymus, Curator of the exhibition See more posters from Uwe Loesch on Pinterest. See more links about Uwe Loesch on Delicious.

Requiem, 2008 'Sit in. 5. Deutscher Designer' Saturday, 1993 Traces of the unborn - Daniel Liebeskind in Berlin, Jüdisches Museum im Berlin Museum, 1994 We Are Them - They Are Us, 2001

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