The Silent Road

Alexandre "Xanti" Schawinsky (Basel, March 26, 1904 - Locarno, September 11, 1979) was a multifaceted Swiss designer, photographer and painter. His first passion was graphics advertising, focused his studies on architecture and painting in Zurich knows first and then approached the school Bahuhausdi Weimar. His masters of reference were founders of abstract art such as Walter Gropius, Vasilij Kandinskij, Paul Klee and Làszlò Moholy-Nagy. In those years he was able to experiment with different areas in which to apply his art and his graphic taste very current for the time, he distinguished himself in particular in theatrical productions and perfected his photographic and typographic studies. From 1924 to 1933 he traveled extensively, he went to Paris, then in Germany and Italy, created collaborations with other artists and exhibited in many exhibitions. In 1933 he moved to Milan, starting a collaboration with the Studio Boggeri, just as a graphic designer. In a short time turned out to be a "decisive presence" for the contribution to the realization of famous advertising campaigns. He also opened his own studio at 68 Corso Venezia.
In particular he collaborated, creating the iconic posters for Cinzano, Motta, Illy, San Pellegrino and especially Olivetti, with the application of the innovative technique of photomontage. For Olivetti also participated in the creation of the Olivetti Studio 42 typewriter. Invited to Black Mountain College in the United States in 1936, he remained there for two years as a professor, introducing his experience at the Bauhaus, before moving to New York. Here he taught graphic arts, drawing and painting at the City College Of New York and New York University between 1943 and 1945.
During the New York period he created his most important artistic works that were exhibited in important institutions and museums such as the MoMA in New York. From that moment on, his graphic experimentation became to all intents and purposes an artistic research, his works have a very up-to-date taste and have been the forerunner, since the Thirties, for an updating of graphics and advertising photography in Italy, thanks to his international culture and the continuous experimentation of photographic techniques able to make school. For many contemporary artists, the widespread taste of Xanti Schawinsky has been an inevitable source of inspiration, as for example in the use of the collage technique which is today very much appreciated and used.