BOOK REVIEW

Wieland Schuetz Grafik_Design

Wieland Schuetz; Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin (D), (May 1998); 160 pages, 168 reproductions, 28 x 21 cm, hardcover; ISBN 3-7861-2260-1; DEM 128 (about 75 US$); in german

Berlin born Wieland Schuetz has applied his talents to many fields as the subtitle of his book indicates - graphic design for posters, museums, catalogues, libraries, printed matter, galleries, projects, exhibitions, books, editions, archives. His clients are mostly from the Berlin cultural scene, and he has given many museums there a helping hand with exhibition designs and museum posters, pamphlets and invitation cards. He also designs a good part of the book covers of the publisher of this book, Gebr. Mann, whom you will all know from their classical volumes Das Fruehe Plakat in Europa.

His sixtieth birthday gave him an occasion to review his life and his work. About a dozen of his many friends have written short contributions to the book, sumptuously illustrated with their black-and-white snapshots taken years ago and augmented with pictures of Wieland's little brother, his first and second wife, his parents, and, yes, his grandparents.

Harry Bertoia 1968, Wieland Schuetz Poster for an exhibition of sculpture and graphics (this was Schuetz's first printed poster)

Bruecke-Museum Berlin 1991, Wieland Schuetz One of a series of about ten posters for exhibitions of paintings, this one for Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Orangerie im Kronprinzenpalais 1995, Wieland Schuetz Poster for an art fair in a palace in former East Berlin

About one hundred of Wieland Schuetz's posters are shown in full color, almost all of them for museum and art exhibitions. Many of them display the objects that are exhibited as photographs or reproductions, and this of course is quite a different approach than the one taken by Armin Hofmann for example, or that of the poster designers of the recent artist poster exhibition at the Museum fuer Angewandte Kunst Koeln.

I must leave the judgment to the readers of this book about which kind of exhibition posters they prefer, but would nevertheless remind them that "the worm must please the fish, more than the fisherman" (to quote a current bonmot).