Hans Tisdall (nee Aufseeser, 14 August 1910 – 31 January 1997), was a German-born artist, who worked in the UK as a designer and teacher. He is largely remembered for his bookjacket and textile designs.
After training in Munich and Berlin, Aufseeser moved to Paris and then London. He changed his name to Tisdall in around 1940, marrying the journalist and Tamesa Fabrics founder
Isabel Tisdall in 1941.
Career
Hans Tisdall made his name in the 1930s as a textile designer with Edinburgh Weavers. In the 1960s, he created many designs for Tamesa Fabrics – working alongside designers such as
Marianne Straub
Marianne Straub OBE (23 September 1909 – 8 November 1994) was one of the leading commercial designers of textiles in Britain in the period from the 1940s to 1960s. She said her overriding aim was: "to design things which people could afford. .. ...
. Fabrics woven at
Warner & Sons ''For the bell-founding family, see John Warner & Sons.''
Warner & Sons (also Warner and Sons) was a British textile manufacturer specialising in silk for the furnishing industry. It wove the coronation robes for both Edward VII and Elizabeth II ...
were used for a number of prestigious commercial projects.
Tisdall was among the designers who contributed to the
Festival of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people:
...
in 1951, winning the competition to design the entrance to the funfair at
Battersea Park's pleasure gardens.
From the 1950s on, Tisdall also became known for creating bookjackets, notably for
Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960.
Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation ...
. A typeface based on his brushstroke style, known as Tisdall Script, was created by
Michael Harvey in 2001.
Another typeface called Blesk, loosely based on his lettering for books by Ivor Brown, was created in 2015.
Tisdall taught at Central School (now
University of the Arts) from 1947 to 1962, initially in the textile department and later in the school of painting.
Works
Of Tisdall's paintings, ''Moorings at Kew'' and two still lifes are in the collection of
Manchester Art Gallery
Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three c ...
and ''Hastings'' is part of the collection of Pallant House Gallery in
Chichester
Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...
.
Some of his textile designs are held at the
Warner Textile Archive in
Braintree.
A small selection of his designs is held by University of the Arts.
Exhibitions
A retrospective of Tisdall's work was held at The Pride Gallery in London in 1988 and at the Galerie Vömel in Düsseldorf shortly before his wife's death in 2007.
Books
* ''Hans Tisdall: A Retrospective'', The Pride Gallery, 1988, .
References
External links
Art UK
1910 births
1997 deaths
Artists from Munich
German emigrants to the United Kingdom
Textile designers
German designers
German illustrators
Academics of the University of the Arts London
{{England-artist-stub