ArtistKleukens, Friedrich Wilhelm

Artist Years1878-1956

Artist NationalityGerman

TitleM Steht fur Maus (M is for Mouse)

Year1926

MediumDrawing > Mixed Media

DimensionsComposition: 3.2 X 5 inches

Accession NumberRC1337

NotesFriedrich Wilhelm Kleukens (7 May 1878 in Achim near Bremen; 22 August 1956 in Nürtingen) was a German book and type designer, painter and graphic artist, book artist, architect, typographer and product designer. He is one of the outstanding designers of the book art era. Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens is the brother of Christian Heinrich Kleukens.

The Kiss, mosaic by Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens, designed in 1914 for the wedding tower on the in Darmstadt, according to plans by the architect Joseph Maria Olbrich Sump, Mosaic designed by Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens, with a poem by Rudolf G. Binding, on the south side of the wedding tower on the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt

In 1907, Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens married Paula Freiin Raitz von Frentz (born 1884), the daughter of the k.u.k. Kämmerers and winery owner Karl Freiherr Raitz v. Frentz, and his wife Hermine v. Coal-burner. Two daughters were born in the marriage, Ingeborg Kleukens and Helga Kleukens. Their daughter Helga Kleukens married Friedrich Haus, an architect, a son of Rudolf Haus, who PhD and his wife Elfriede Bülow, the daughter of the legal scholar Oskar von Bülow. Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens named two of his artistic – graphic designs, from the series of Antiqua publications he designed, after his daughters Ingeborg and Helga:

“ Ingeborg Antiqua. Font foundry D. Stamp, Frankfurt a. M. 1909 “
“ Helga Antiqua. Font foundry D. Stamp, Frankfurt a. M. 1911”

Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens completed an apprenticeship as a draughtsman in the studio of the Bremen silverware factory Wilkens & Söhne. He then attended the educational institution at the Royal Museum of Decorative Arts in Berlin, where he met Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke and Georg Belwe. Together with them, he founded the Steglitz workshop for art commercial designs in 1900, which can be considered the first German advertising agency in the modern sense. All three designers were representatives of the New Book Art in the decade before the First World War; Kleukens was also on other design fields (e.g. B. cutlery).

The main client of the Steglitz workshop was Otto Ring, the manufacturer of the adhesive , designed original and successful advertising measures for the Kleukens until the 1920s. The company worked in a short time in various arts and crafts disciplines, operated its own commercial print shop, a furniture shop and an arts commercial school. At the same time, profitability decreased because the small team was not up to the requirements in terms of staff and did not have sufficient liquidity.

When the Steglitzer Werkstatt was operating company at the beginning of 1903 and absorbed financially strong shareholders, Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens and Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke left the company. Kleukens took part in teaching at the Leipzig Academy of Graphic Arts and Bookmaking from 1903 to 1906, where Georg Belwe followed him after a few years, and initially concentrated fully on this task.

In October 1906 Kleukens became a member of the Darmstadt artists' colony. He did not accept the reputation of coming to the Hamburg School of Applied Arts in 1907. He remained in Darmstadt until 1930. He taught at the "Grand Ducal Teaching Studios for Applied Arts" from 1907 to 1911.

His designs for two mosaics for the entrance hall of the wedding tower on the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt (The Kiss and The Loyalty) were executed. In the spring of 1907, he was appointed to the Hamburg School of Applied Arts for the class of surface art and ]graphics, but did not accept this appearance (which instead Carl Otto Czeschka could be won over to Hamburg).4] In 1907, he was appointed as artistic director of the Ernst-Ludwig-Darmstadt, founded by Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Kleukens ran the press together with his brother, the printer and typographer Christian Heinrich Kleukens, who had already headed the printing house in the Steglitz workshop. As one of the first German private presses, the Ernst Ludwig press was followed by English role models of the Arts and Crafts movement such as the Kelmscott Press and the Doves Press. It was quickly considered one of the first German addresses and served as a model for other enterprises. After only three years, she won the Grand Prix of the Brussels World's Fair of 1910.

While C. H. Kleukens took care of the perfect printing version of all printed products, drew F. W. Kleukens was responsible for the entire design: In the years up to 1914, 26 official prints and 36 other printed works were produced, mostly in small runs of 100 to 150 copies, for which he presented all the titles, initials, writings and illustrations. However, unlike his brother, he represented a negative attitude towards any superfluous ornamentation in book art and campaigned for a rationally ordered typography. Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War, he handed over the leadership of the press to his brother.
(source: wikipedia.org)