Piet Zwart

Piet Zwart ( born May 28, 1885 in Zaandijk, † September 24, 1977 in Wassenaar ) was a Dutch typographer, photographer, designer, interior designer and teacher.

Life

Zwart, born 1885 in Zaandijk, is considered an important constructivist designer and pioneer of modern typography. He visited in the years 1902-1907 the School of Applied Arts in Amsterdam. 1908 to 1913 he was a teacher of drawing and art history at a girls' school in Leeuwarden. From 1911 he designed furniture and crafted objects. He studied from 1913 to mobilization in the following year at the Technical University Delft. From 1919 on, he worked with architects, first at Jan Wils, beginning in 1921 as an assistant at Hendrik Petrus Berlage. January Wils introduced him to the modernist artist group De Stijl, whose co-founders Vilmos Huszár belonged, with the 1920-21 Zwart designed furniture. From 1923 he worked as a commercial artist. We are especially famous for his work De Nederlandsche Kabelfabriek ( NKF ) in Delft. He also created brochures for the Dutch Post and 1929 a series of stamps. In 1931 he was a guest lecturer at the Bauhaus in Dessau. Zwart was interned in 1944 by the Nazis.

In 1964, some of his works at the documenta III in Kassel in the Department graphics were shown.

Zwart in the 1960s was a member of the International Center for the Typographic Arts ( ICTA ).