Robert Michel was a fan of aeroplanes and also wishedd to fly high as an artist: the German graphic artist, typographer and architect went from test pilot to a pioneer of picture collage, absorbing influences from Dadaism, Futurism, Constructivism and occasionally even Surrealism and dedicating his pictures to the relationship between man and machine.
(...) Continue readingAn aeroplane crash led Robert Michel to art
Robert Michel was born in Vockenhausen on 27th February 1897. As the son of a long-established family of manufacturers, he grew up in affluent circumstances. His desire to become a mechanical engineer led him via the Garnier Institute to Darmstadt, where he came into contact with the aviation pioneer August Euler. Still in its infancy, aviation inspired the young Robert Michel so much that he worked as a volunteer at the Gotha wagon factory and at the Hanover aircraft factory. At the beginning of the First World War, he volunteered for the air force, passed his pilot's exam at the Herzog Carl Eduard Herren Fliegerschule in 1915 and served as a test pilot until a serious crash in 1917, which he survived, but with serious injuries. The long period of recovery led Robert Michel to turn to art. He enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Weimar and attended Walther Klemm's drawing class, whose teaching methods, however, he soon came to dislike. Michel’s unconventionality and avant-garde leanings ultimately led to his forced de-registration.
Studio in Weimar; marriage to Ella Bergmann-Michel
For a time, Robert Michel subsequently maintained his own studio in Weimar, studied the work of Robert Delaunay and showed great interest in Cubism and Futurism. His first collages attracted the attention of Walter Gropius, who wished to recruit him for his newly founded Bauhaus, but Michel refused because he did not want to be tied to an academic organisation. He found a like-minded comrade in his former fellow student Ella Bergmann, whom he married in October 1919. The couple moved into an old paint mill near Vockenhausen with their newborn son Hans and set up studios there. That same year, Michel was already able to take part in exhibitions in Hanover, Leipzig and Cologne. In 1921, he met Kurt Schwitters for the first time, who remained associated with the couple for the rest of their lives. In the mid-1920s, Michel took part in Ernst May's New Frankfurt project and designed neon signs for shops.
Driving force of the avant-garde; ostracised by the Nazi regime
In the inter-war period, Robert Michel developed into an important figure in the German avant-garde. In addition to Kurt Schwitters, his circle of friends included Jan Tschichold, László Moholy-Nagy and Willi Baumeister. Together with his wife and several colleagues, he founded the Ring neuer Werbegestalter (Circle of New Advertising Designers), and his technical understanding also allowed him to work as an architect for a time. While his art was enthusiastically received even in the USA, the Reich Chamber of Culture in Germany banned him from exhibiting in 1933 and ordered the dissolution of his artist's office. Michel withdrew from art, earned his living as a trout farmer and only began working as a graphic artist again in 1954. In the 1960s, he exhibited several times together with his wife Ella Bergmann-Michel; after her death in 1971, he moved in with his daughter Ella in the Black Forest.
Robert Michel died on11th June 1983 in Titisee-Neustadt. His son Hans Michel became a famous graphic and poster artist.
Robert Michel - Works that have already been sold at Kunsthaus Lempertz:
