Dan Reisinger

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Dan Reisinger (b. 1934) is an Israeli designer of graphics, exhibitions, and stage sets.

He was born in Kanjiža, Yugoslavia (now Serbia), into a family of painters and decorators active in Austria-Hungary and the Balkans. Most family members died in the Holocaust, including his father. As a teenager, he became active in the Partisan Pioneer Brigade and, with his mother and stepfather, immigrated to Israel in 1949. Reisinger initially lived in a transit camp and then worked as a house painter in order to earn money from almost any source. In 1950 at age 16, he was accepted as a student—its youngest up to the time—at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, there to 1954.

During mandatory service in the Israeli Air Force from 1954, he was the art director of its books and other publications. While there, he attended a class on postage-stamp design taught by Abram Games, who became his mentor and friend. Subsequently, he traveled, studied and worked in Europe: from 1957 in Brussels and then onto London where, 1964–66, studied stage and three-dimensional design at the Central School of Art and Design (today the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design), designed posters for Britain's Royal Mail, and worked for other clients while making intermittent visits to Israel. Then in 1966, he returned permanently to Israel and established a studio in Tel Aviv which is today in Giv'atayim.

His work has been included in numerous international group and one-person exhibitions. A large number of social-, political-, and cultural-theme posters and other graphic design, such as calendars, packaging and more than 150 logos, are superior to much of his fine art. He designed a new logo for El Al airlines (1972) and the 50-meter-long aluminum-cast relief (1978) of a biblical quotation in Hebrew on the exterior of the Yad Vashem, Israel's official museum/memorial to Holocaust victims, in Jerusalem. His widely published self-produced “Again?” poster (1993) features a Nazi swastika (which Reisinger incorrectly made to face left) breaks apart a red Star of David in reference to the possible dreaded repeat of the Holocaust. The influences on his work—itself more widely focused than solely on social and political issues—have come from colorists, Minimalists, Constructivists, and humorists. He claims one of his more significant contributions has been to stretch the visual and communicative possibilities of Hebrew letters, through his symbols and logos. Reisinger is one of Israel's most-accomplished graphic designers; the others include Franz Kraus (1905–98), Gabriel and Maxim Shamir (1909–92, 1910–90), and David Tartakover (b. 1944).

Reisinger designed the Israeli Medal of Valor, first awarded in 1973.

[edit] Various Prizes

Herman Struck Prize for poster designs (1954), Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem; first prize for the poster of Palais International de la Science (1957), Expo '58, Brussels; Nordau Prize for Design (1974); Herzl Prize for Contribution to Design in Israel (1981); first Alumni Prize (1984), Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem; Israel Prize (1998), the first to a designer

[edit] References

Goldfine, Gil. "Dan Reisinger." Graphis magazine (vol. 47, 1991, pp. 80–91).
Leu, Olaf. "Dan Resinger: A Champion of Visual Culture." Novum magazine (1996, pp. 60–67).
Tszorf, Maurice. "Color, Form, Function: Dan Reisinger's New Residence in Caeserea," Graphis magazine (vol. 56, no. 329, 2000, pp. 66–75).
Bing'nan, Yu (intro.) (2000). Dan Reisinger (text in English and Chinese), Beijing: Tsinghua. | ISBN 7-302-04842-8.
"Q&A with Dan Reisinger," Graphis magazine (no. 344, March/April 2003).