Hugo Steiner-Prag

Hugo Steiner-Prag (1880-1945) was a painter, printmaker, set designer. He studied at the Prague Academy (1897-1901) under V. Brozík and V. Hynais; then at the Munich Academy (1901-2) under P. Halm and F. von Stuck. He travelled to Belgium, Holland, France, Spain and Portugal. Between 1907-33 Steiner-Prag taught at the Akademie für Graphische Künste in Leipzig. From 1910 he worked on theatre design in Leipzig and from 1919-32 he was art director at Berlin publishing house, Propyläen Verlag. From 1926 he was the president of 'Spolek nemeckých knizních umelcu' and associated with R.M. nRilke, F. Werfel, F. Kafka, M. Brod, E. E. Kisch. Steiner-Prag organised international exhibitions of book art (Cologne 1928, Barcelona 1929, New York, Pittsburg 1930, Paris 1931, Leipzig 1932). He returmed to Prague in 1933 and in 1934 founded a workshop 'Officina Pragensis' for printmaking, book and poster design; where he also taught courses and collaborated with the Prague Museum of Applied Arts in establishing an international collection of modern book art. By 1938 he had emigrated to Sweden, and then to the USA in 1941, where he taught at the University of New York. - Contemperory Art Society