Franz Erhard Walther - Manifestations. Catalogue Raisonne of the Posters, Books and Drafts 1958-2020

I don’t make any artisic difference between a poster design and my Work Drawings. –Franz Erhard Walther Franz Erhard Walther (b. Fulda, 1939; lives and works in Fulda) is a German sculptor and creator of conceptual, installation, and process-based art whose work often stands in relation to his, or the beholder’s, body. For four decades, Walther designed artist’s posters, a genre that has become an anachronism in our contemporary digital world. The artist’s poster had its heyday in the era of art nouveau, classic modernism, and Pop Art. Yet despite the ascent of new media, virtually all artists of note to this day produce posters as well, and Franz Erhard Walther is no exception. This book is the first to gather his extensive output in the format in a single volume, rounded out by a wide-ranging survey of his designs and artist’s books. Complemented by essays based on extensive research by Claus von der Osten and Rene S. Spiegelberger, the book provides insight into the influential artist’s work. Franz Erhard Walther studied at the Werkkunstschule Offenbach am Main (today’s Offenbach University of Art and Design) and the Stadelschule Academy of Fine Arts in Frankfurt. He completed his education with a stint at the Dusseldorf Academy of Fine Arts, where Karl Otto Goetz was his teacher and Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke were among his fellow students. At the age of 32, Walther was appointed to a professorship at the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts (HFBK), where he taught until 2005. His works were on display at documenta 5, 6, 7, and 8, and in 2017, Walther received the Golden Lion at the 57th Venice Biennale.