ANTON STANKOWSKI (1906-1998)

The German graphic designer Anton Stankowski created many neat, visual shorthands for famous logos and trademarks. As a printmaker and painter, Stankowski followed his functional clean style of graphic design, and hoped to elevate this applied art to the status of the fine arts. His series of numbers Zahlen II is indicative of this approach and the influence of abstract painters Piet Mondrian, Theo van Doesburg, Malevich, and Kandinsky. Stankowski’s playful approach to the numbers series blurs the distinction between form and content, some numbers appear as geometric abstractions and others as more literal interpretations with shapes meant to be counted or tallied.