From lithography to offset printing - The “Kunstanstalt Carl Garte Leipzig” and the collection of Hans Garte

The exhibition is shared into two chapters: The first part shows the production of picture postcards by the graphic art company Carl Garte around 1900. At that time, the picture postcard was a booming mass medium. It shows the importance of design as well as the composition of colours in a competitive market. Along with this went the engineers’ joy to experiment with several printing techniques. Selected exhibits illustrate the predominant printing technique of chromolithography which soon was combined with other techniques.

The second part of the exhibition presents the technique of offset printing in which the graphic art company Carl Garte invested as one of the first companies in Germany. The early offset printing was not used to print books and newspapers but to print picture postcards, posters, advertisement and packages. This field of application is documented with colourful original prints from the collection of Hans Garte.

The exhibition was created in cooperation with the German Newspaper Museum Wadgassen, the International Senefelder Foundation Offenbach and the collector Gerhard Stumpp, Stuttgart.