Wikipedia

Anna Haifisch

Anna Haifisch (born 1986 in Zwenkau, Leipzig district) is a German cartoonist and illustrator who has been working for German and international media. She is best known for her cartoons titled The Artist, first published by Vice magazine, her 2018 doodle for Google and her contribution to the series Drawn to MoMA of the New York Museum of Modern Art. Her work has received several awards and was translated into English, French, Spanish and other languages.

Anna Haifisch
Born1986
Zwenkau, East Germany
Alma materHochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
Known forcartoons, webcomics, illustrations
Notable workThe Artist, Drawn to MoMA, Google doodle
AwardsMax und Moritz Award
WebsiteOfficial website

Life and career

edit

Haifisch studied graphic design and printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig from 2004 to 2011. Still a student in 2008, she travelled to the US for the first time to improve her knowledge of printmaking technique, while working in a screen printing workshop in Brooklyn. Following this, she continued her postgraduate course at the same art school in Leipzig until 2015.[1]

In 2013, with friends including James Turek and Max Baitinger, she founded the festival for comics and illustration The Millionaires Club, which has been organized in parallel to the Leipzig Book Fair.[2][3] Her webcomic The Artist was published by Vice magazine as Today's comic between September 2015[4] and December 2016.[5] This series of comics featured a conceited artist, changing between self-pity and overconfidence, who wants to make it in the world of art. As Haifisch commented, the story is not closely inspired by her own life, “but the protagonist does have a lot in common with me in terms of temperament.”[1] Episodes of The Artist have also been published as books since 2016.[6]

In 2018, Haifisch was a featured guest artist at the MoCCA Arts Festival, Manhattan's largest independent comics, cartoon and animation festival.[7] Celebrating International Women's Day 2018, Google chose Haifisch as one of 12 international graphic artists to design a doodle.[8] In 2020, the New York Museum of Modern Art commissioned her work for their series Drawn to MoMA.[9]

Haifisch, whose name means shark in German, often uses graphic versions of human-like "funny animals" as main characters of her stories. These animal figures are experiencing the absurdities of daily life. In particular, her bird-like character The Artist reflects the challenges of being an artist in an ironical way.[10] Her work is further characterized by thin lines drawn with an ink pen and expressive yellow and orange colours. In her large-size book Drifter, she was said to "bend[...] the rules of comics."[11] Her style has been described as a combination of "dark" melancholy and "silly" elements, influenced by the graphic styles and colours of past decades.[12]

Having grown up and studied in Leipzig,[13] an important cultural centre in eastern Germany, during the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Haifisch named Czech and Russian graphic art as influences. As a child, she was attracted to American culture, which included comics by Walt Disney and other elements of the American way of life.[1] Her illustrations have appeared in German and international magazines and newspapers, including Die Zeit,[14] The New Yorker,[15] The New York Times,[16] Bloomberg Businessweek,[17] Le Monde diplomatique,[2] and others.

Reception

edit

Among other recognitions, The Artist was nominated for the 2017 Los Angeles Times Book Prize.[1] In 2020, Haifisch was distinguished with the international Max-und-Moritz-Preis as Best Comic Artist in German language publications.[18]

Apart from other group and solo exhibitions of her graphic art, the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg presented around 300 works in 2024 as an overview of her artistic creations, including illustrations, prints, comics, drawings and products with her designs.[12][19]

Awards and recognition

edit

Selected publications

edit
  • Von Spatz. Kassel: Rotopolpress, 2015, ISBN 978-3-940304-97-1. 
  • The Artist. Berlin: Reprodukt, 2016, ISBN 978-3-95640-032-2. 
  • The Artist. (French edition) Misma Editions, 2016, ISBN 978-2-916254-54-8
  • The Artist – Der Schnabelprinz. Reprodukt, 2017, ISBN 978-3-95640-123-7. 
  • Drifter. Chicago: Perfectly Acceptable Press, 2017.
  • The Artist 2 – Le cycle éternel. Misma Editions, 2018, ISBN 978-2-916254-66-1
  • The Artist. The Circle of Life. Fantagraphics, 2019, ISBN 978-1-911081-07-4.
  • Residenz Fahrenbühl. Leipzig: Spector Books, 2021, ISBN 978-3-95905-434-8.
  • Schappi. (French edition) Misma Editions, 2021, ISBN 978-2-916254-87-6.
  • Mouse in Residence (English edition), Leipzig: Spector Books, 2021, ISBN 9783959055031.
  • Schappi (English edition), Fantagraphics, 2022
  • Chez Schnabel (German / English), Leipzig: Spector Books, 2022
  • Ready America (English edition), Fantagraphics, 2024

Selected exhibitions

edit
  • 2024 Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany[12]
  • 2024 Souris au bec - Musée Tomi Ungerer - Centre international de L'Illustration, Strasbourg, France[25]
  • 2023 The Artist at Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany[26]
  • 2022/23 HOMI, Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Germany[27]
  • 2018/2019 Fuji-san, Museumsquartier Vienna, Austria [28]
  • 2017 The Artist, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Germany[29]

Literature

edit
  • Moster-Hoos, Jutta, Kristina Gerigk, Horst-Janssen, Museum Oldenburg. Die neunte Kunst. Aktuelle deutsche Graphic Novels. Hans Hillmann, Max Baitinger, Anke Feuchtenberger, Anna Haifisch, Jakob Hinrichs, Lukas Jüliger, Reinhard Kleist, Isabel Kreitz, Olivier Kugler, Ulli Lust, Felix Pestemer, Simon Schwartz, Birgit Weyhe, Barbara Yelin. Oldenburg: Isensee, ISBN 9783730814420.
  • Kraenzle, Christina; Ludewig, Julia (2020-01-02). "Transnationalism in German comics". Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. 11 (1): 1–9. doi:10.1080/21504857.2020.1718836. ISSN 2150-4857.
  • Bongers, Helene L. (2024-01-01). "The Critique of the Modern Art Museum in Four Colors: Anna Haifisch's The Artist x MoMA". Source: Notes in the History of Art. 43 (2): 152–162. doi:10.1086/730295. ISSN 0737-4453.

References

edit
  1. ^ a b c d James-Wilson, Matthew. "'You Want to be Surrounded by Weirdness': An Interview with Anna Haifisch | Hazlitt". hazlitt.net. Retrieved 2024-09-03.
  2. ^ a b "Le Monde Diplomatique - Artist: Anna Haifisch". @GI_weltweit. Goethe-Institut. Retrieved 2024-09-03.
  3. ^ "Anna Haifisch and pals to open the sixth Millionaires Club, a comic and graphics festival in Leipzig". www.itsnicethat.com. Retrieved 2024-09-03.
  4. ^ Haifisch, Anna (2015-09-05). "The Artist". VICE. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
  5. ^ "Anna Haifisch Archives". VICE. 2017-03-31. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
  6. ^ Pannor, Stefan. "Anna Haifisch - Leipzig and the World". @GI_weltweit. Goethe-Institut. Archived from the original on 2020-10-22. Retrieved 2024-09-05.
  7. ^ "Panel discussion: The International Comics Scene: Max de Radiguès and Anna Haifisch - Goethe-Institut USA". @GI_weltweit. Retrieved 2024-09-03.
  8. ^ "International Women's Day 2018 Doodle - Google Doodles". doodles.google. Retrieved 2024-09-05.
  9. ^ the Artist x Modern Museum of Art, Moma Magazine
  10. ^ Fischer, Sigrid (2017-04-12). "Tiergeschichten von Anna Haifisch - "Comiczeichner ist ein einsamer Job"". Deutschlandfunk (in German). Retrieved 2024-09-03.
  11. ^ "Anna Haifisch bends the rules of comics in new floppy and oversized book, Drifter". www.itsnicethat.com. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
  12. ^ a b c "Anna Haifisch". www.mkg-hamburg.de. Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg. 2023-11-06. Retrieved 2024-09-03.
  13. ^ "Leipzig | Germany, History, Population, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 2024-09-02. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
  14. ^ Fischermann, Thomas; Buchter, Heike (2024-03-14). "Kryptowährungen: Sollten Sie jetzt in Bitcoin und andere Kryptos investieren?". Die Zeit (in German). ISSN 0044-2070. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
  15. ^ Marx, Patricia (2023-06-19). "Is the Army's New Tactical Bra Ready for Deployment?". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
  16. ^ Holman, Jordyn (2023-02-16). "The Retail C.E.O. Pipeline Is Running Dry". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
  17. ^ "What to Do With Your Money—and Your Life—in a Wild New World". Bloomberg.com. 2023-04-06. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
  18. ^ a b "Tagesspiegel-Comic ausgezeichnet: Max-und-Moritz-Preis für "Busengewunder"". Der Tagesspiegel Online (in German). ISSN 1865-2263. Retrieved 2024-09-03.
  19. ^ NDR. ""Bis hierhin lief's noch gut": Anna-Haifisch-Ausstellung in Hamburg". www.ndr.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-09-03.
  20. ^ "Anna Haifisch erhält den e.o.plauen Förderpreis 2016". Erich Ohser – e.o.plauen Stiftung. 2015-11-07. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  21. ^ Schaub, Michael (2017-02-22). "L.A. Times Book Prize finalists include Zadie Smith and Rep. John Lewis; Thomas McGuane will be honored". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-09-08.
  22. ^ Heiner Lünstedt (2018-11-12). "Haifisch-Ballade". Süddeutsche Zeitung. Retrieved 2020-02-13.
  23. ^ "Leipziger Comiczeichnerin Anna Haifisch erhält den LVZ-Kunstpreis". LVZ.de. 2021-09-30. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
  24. ^ "Grant Recipient Details - Anna Haifisch". www.vatmh.org. Retrieved 2024-09-06.
  25. ^ "Anna Haifisch et ses souris au Musée Tomi Ungerer - poly.fr". Magazine Poly (in German). 2024-02-29. Retrieved 2024-09-03.
  26. ^ "Anna Haifisch im Museum Folkwang | Museum Folkwang". www.museum-folkwang.de (in German). 2023-07-10. Retrieved 2024-09-03.
  27. ^ "Kunsthalle Osnabrück Homi". kunsthalle.osnabrueck.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-09-03.
  28. ^ "Anna Haifisch "Fuji-san"". KABINETT comic passage im MQ Wien (in German). Retrieved 2024-09-04.
  29. ^ "Anna Haifisch". Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz (in German). Retrieved 2024-09-03.
edit
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Anna Haifisch.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anna_Haifisch&oldid=1245033272"