Karl Oskar Blase, the “face of documenta”, would have turned one hundred years old on March 24, 2025. The Kassel-based graphic designer and professor of art and visual communication had been working for documenta since 1964 and had a unique influence on its appearance. To celebrate his milestone birthday, the documenta archiv is dedicating a multimedia studio exhibition to him in the reading room.

[no-indentThe history of documenta is - in the words of Manfred Schneckenburger - inextricably linked with the history of its signets: their vitality and rigor, their optimism and their disruptions always help to shape the exhibition. No designer can be described more aptly with these words than Karl Oskar Blase, born in Cologne in 1925, whose work as a multi-talent in applied and free art and theory can hardly be overestimated. As a designer of international standing, he conceived the graphics section of documenta 3 on the premises of the Werkkunstschule Kassel as early as 1964. He subsequently designed the signet, graphics and typography for documenta 4 (1968), documenta 5 (1972), documenta 6 (1977) and documenta 8 (1987).

Equally central is his conceptual contribution to Harald Szeemann's epochal documenta 5, the “Audiovisual Documentation”. As part of the new “information structure”, it comprised a steadily growing number of performance recordings, video interviews and conversations with artists, mediators and the public. During the exhibition, these recordings could be viewed by visitors on the first floor of the Museum Fridericianum. Five years later, the project was presented a second time in the “Videothek” of Schneckenburger's documenta 6.

Karl Oskar Blase 100 provides an insight into more than four decades of design history by means of archival documents, drafts and project sketches as well as posters and at the same time opens up perspectives on the diverse interweaving of graphic design, biography and contemporary history.

We would like to thank the ZKM: Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, for the loan of videos from the “Audiovisual Documentation”.

Karl Oskar Blase 100
Studio exhibition in the documenta archiv
Untere Karlsstr. 4, 34117 Kassel
from March 25, 2025

Exhibition and concept: Julius Lehmann
Framing and restoration supervision: Arlett Sauermann
Installation: Kristiane Krüger and Knut Sippel
Support: Natalie Schmidt

About Karl Oskar Blase

- Born on March 24, 1925 in Cologne
- 1945: Military service and imprisonment
- Studied graphics and painting at the Werkkunstschule Wuppertal
- 1949: Starts working with Felix Müller under the name Atelier müller-blase; meets Jupp Ernst - later director of the Werkkunstschule Kassel
- Member of the Deutscher Werkbund since 1952; exhibition and poster designs as head of the graphic design studio of the Amerika-Häuser in Germany; first solo exhibition at the Städtisches Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen in the same year
- 1957: Founding of the magazine form together with Jupp Ernst, Willem Sandberg, Curt Schweicher and Wilhelm Wagenfeld
- From 1958: Lecturer at the Staatliche Werkkunstschule Kassel; founding of the novum group with, among others, the Kassel graphic designer and illustrator Hans Hillmann
- 1964: Conception of the “Graphics” section of documenta 3 at the Werkkunstschule Kassel, in which he himself was represented with exhibited posters, advertising brochures, theater programs and record covers from the 1950s and 60s.
- From 1966 Professor of Art and Visual Communication, Kunsthochschule Kassel
- 1961: Member of the design team for the German pavilion at the Expo in Montreal, with Frei Otto and others.
- 1966-1978: Poster design for the Staatstheater Kassel
- 1968: Overall graphic design for documenta 4; appointed to the board of the Kasseler Kunstverein
- 1972: Graphic design, typography and advertising material for documenta 5; realization of the video interview project “Audio-Visual Documentation” on the first floor of the Museum Fridericianum
- 1977: Overall graphic design of documenta 6; new edition of his video interviews with artists, mediators and visitors as part of the “Videothek” section on the top floor of the Museum Fridericianum
- 1979 to 1983: Head of the Kasseler Kunstverein as chairman
- 1987: Overall graphic design of documenta 8
- 1992: Emeritus status
- 2001: Creation of his grave monument in the Kassel artists' necropolis
- Passed away in Kassel on December 27, 2016