In the 1970s, Helmut Schmidt-Rhen was a pioneering and frequently awarded communication designer, later devoting himself entirely to art. Victor Malsy, Schmidt-Rhen's successor at the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences, has written an obituary ...
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prof. helmut schmidt rhen
1936 - 2025
helmut schmidt rhen is dead.
he was born in cologne in 1936. after an aborted apprenticeship as a metalworker in leverkusen, he trained as a bookseller. from 1957 to 1960, schmidt rhen studied graphic design with hans leistikow and hans hillmann and painting with arnold bode at the state academy of arts in kassel. together with his fellow students christian chruxin and wolfgang schmidt, he is today one of the three systematic designers of the kassel school of poster art, book and magazine graphics.
helmut schmidt rhen was a designer.
since 1956, he developed constructive-concrete images and serial experiments playing with form & color, system & coincidence, language & sequence on his own initiative. after his studies, schmidt rhen worked as a graphic designer and art director at GGK in basel from 1961. in 1962, he designed a poster concept for the changing exhibitions at the museum morsbroich in leverkusen on his own initiative and convinced the then museum director udo kultermann. In 1965 he moved from basel to cologne and worked as art director for the business magazine 'Capital'. for the cologne public libraries he developed a visual appearance and the literary magazine 'LiK' (literature in cologne) on mustard yellow paper.
helmut schmidt rhen was a university teacher.
from 1968 to 1973, schmidt rhen taught graphic design at the werkkunstschule düsseldorf (later the düsseldorf university of applied sciences), and from 1976 to 1993 he taught as a professor of communication design at the düsseldorf university of applied sciences (now the düsseldorf university of applied sciences). during his teaching activities, he and student project groups developed the design guidelines for the visual appearance of the düsseldorf university of applied sciences (fh d) and the magazine 'OETZ' in 1979. with his 'poetry of systematics', schmidt rhen set standards during his teaching activities in the design disciplines of posters, magazines, magazines and appearance.
helmut schmidt rhen was a painter.
between 1984 and 1988 he created his 'street prints', prints of manhole covers, directly from the street. in an ordinary 'gully' he discovered a cast-iron printing block with recessed and raised surfaces - a cliché used in letterpress printing for the reproduction of images. in 1994 he ended his teaching career in düsseldorf and moved to hamburg with his wife doris hartmann. in his hamburg studio - he called it 'labor visuell' in the early years - he created sequences, meta-paintings and typoesias until 2024. schmidt rhen's painting has its origins in his pictorial imagination, which is more musical than landscape or otherwise representational. schmidt rhen is concerned with "form and color - less with nude and sky", as he once said. the prolific reader and language player gave his paintings titles such as algor, bingo, color grid, color strings, color flow, chromatic net, chromatic stochastic construction, crepusculum, di:visibel, dougreymi, entropy, facettura, fenster, fifty:fifty, yellow red and blue square for kasimir, grid image, matrix, palimpsest, raster matrix, rrrrot, staccato, transition, viergrau, vocal motto, weiss wie die Wand, wolke, ...
helmut schmidt rhen was a friend.
i met helmut in 1985. it was towards the end of my graphic design studies in bremen. we exchanged letters and set the record straight about karl kraus. i never studied with helmut and yet he was one of my most important teachers from afar. the systematic, serial design, the thinking not in individual solutions but in programs for solutions, he showed me in his work and in his thinking throughout his life. for this and for much more: thank you, helmut. and: paint bright pictures on cloud nine.
helmut schmidt rhen died on july 3, 2025 - in his 89th year - in hamburg.
obituary of victor malsy
professor of typography and book design at the design department of the university of applied sciences düsseldorf from 2000 to 2024
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a typography by helmut schmidt rhen in seven picture frames 24 x 18 cm, 1996
Header image: Poster collection of the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences
