Draft:Klaus Lehmann

Portrait of Klaus Lehmann

Klaus Lehmann' (3 April 1934 – 25 August 2021) was a German industrial designer and design educator. He was professor of product design at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart (ABK Stuttgart) from 1966 to 2000 and served as rector of the academy from 1994 to 1998.

Lehmann was also active internationally as a design educator. From the 1980s onwards, he taught at design institutions in China and became involved in the development of industrial design education there.

Early life and education

Lehmann was born in Lörrach, Germany, on 3 April 1934. From 1953 to 1959 he studied industrial design at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart under Hans Warnecke.

After completing his studies, Lehmann received a scholarship and continued his professional development in England. He also taught at several higher-education institutions there and was involved in establishing a new industrial design department at North East Essex Technical College in Colchester.

Academic career

In 1966 Lehmann was appointed professor of product design at the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart, succeeding Hans Warnecke. His teaching was characterised by small classes and close interaction between teachers and students.

Lehmann served as pro-rector of the academy from 1988 to 1991 and became rector in 1994. During his tenure, he sought to reduce the institutional separation between the academy's fine-art and applied-art disciplines. He served as rector until 1998 and remained professor of product design until his retirement in 2000.

Klaus Lehmann lecturing

Alongside his academic work, Lehmann was a partner in the design office Designsocietät and continued to work in professional design practice.

International work

Lehmann worked internationally as a visiting professor, lecturer and adviser. The Association of German Industrial Designers (VDID) records international teaching, lectures and advisory activities, including work undertaken in connection with design schools, professional organisations, governments and the Goethe-Institut.

His international academic activities included a visiting professorship at Ohio State University, a visiting professorship at the National University of Singapore in 2000, and workshops and lectures at Tsinghua University in Beijing in 2004.

Silhouette of Klaus Lehmann in front of the academy

Lehmann was also active in professional organisations. He served as chairman of the Baden-Württemberg branch of the German Werkbund from 2000 to 2008 and was a member of the German Council of Science and Humanities, through which he advised the German federal government on the restructuring of art and music academies in the eastern German states following German reunification.

Work in China

Lehmann's involvement in Chinese design education dates to at least 1985. A doctoral dissertation published by the University of Duisburg-Essen states that he had been teaching at various Chinese design institutions since 1985 and was involved in training Chinese design lecturers.

His activities were subsequently discussed in academic literature on the development of industrial design education in China. In a comparative study published in the International Journal of Technology and Design Education, Xuefei Huang, Roger Ball and Wei Wang identify Lehmann, then dean of the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, as having organised basic industrial-design courses at the Central Academy of Craft Art in China.

The authors place Lehmann's activities within the wider international exchange that influenced the development of industrial design education in China after the country reopened to international exchange in 1979.

Lehmann's long-term connection with China was also associated with Liu Guanzhong, a Chinese designer who had studied at the Stuttgart academy. According to the VDID, Liu's subsequent work in Chinese design education contributed to a continuing connection between Lehmann and Chinese design institutions.

In 2016 Lehmann was invited by Phoenix Fine Arts Publishing to China for the presentation of his book Teaching Design – Design Teaching, following decades of teaching activity in China.

Lehmann received the China Industrial Design Special Contribution Award in 2004, according to the VDID.

Publications

Lehmann wrote on design and design education. His book Teaching Design – Design Teaching was published in Nanjing in 2006 and was subsequently used in Chinese design education.

Death

Lehmann died on 25 August 2021, aged 87.

External links

Category:1934 births Category:2021 deaths Obituary for Klaus Lehmann, State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart Obituary, Association of German Industrial Designers

Literature

• Horst Bachmayer / Klaus Lehmann / Otto Sudrow: Das Typische als Gestaltungsziel. Der Lehrer und Produktgestalter Hans Warnecke. Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 978-3-89322-029-8.
• Klaus Lehmann / Otto Sudrow: Entfaltungen. Designausbildung Klasse Prof. Klaus Lehmann. Stuttgart, ISBN 978-3-922608-98-1.
• Klaus Lehmann: Teaching Design – Design Teaching. Phoenix Fine Arts Publications, 2016, ISBN 978-7558008603.
• Erkundungen. Stuttgart: Design-Center, Landesgewerbeamt Baden-Württemberg, 1987, ISBN 978-3874226233.

Archive (selection)

• Fish and Chips – Gestaltung für Menschen im elektronischen Zeitalter
• The European Design Prize 1988
• Unternehmenskultur: Neuer Begriff oder neues Bewusstsein?
• Über Produktsemantik
• Was ist deutsch am deutschen Design – auf der Suche nach einer nationalen Identität
• Education in Design
• Design and Ecology
• Wie der Edelstahl in die Küche kam
• Gestaltungsprobleme im Ingenieurbau