Anna Haifisch Explained

Anna Haifisch
Birth Place:Leipzig, East Germany
Alma Mater:Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig
Awards:Max und Moritz Award
Website:Official website

Anna Haifisch (born 1986) is a German cartoonist and illustrator who has been working for German and international media. She is best known for her cartoons titled The Artist, first published by Vice magazine, her 2018 doodle for Google and her contribution to the series Drawn to MoMA of the New York Museum of Modern Art. Her work has received several awards and has been translated into English, French, Spanish and other languages.

Life and career

Haifisch was born in Leipzig, East Germany. She studied graphic design and printmaking at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig from 2004 to 2011. Still a student in 2008, she travelled to the US for the first time to improve her knowledge of printmaking technique, while working in a screen printing workshop in Brooklyn. Following this, she continued her postgraduate course at the same art school in Leipzig until 2015.

In 2013, with friends including James Turek and Max Baitinger, she founded the festival for comics and illustration The Millionaires Club, which has been organized in parallel to the Leipzig Book Fair.[1] [2] Her webcomic The Artist was published by Vice magazine as Today's comic between September 2015[3] and December 2016.[4] This series of comics featured a conceited artist, changing between self-pity and overconfidence, who wants to make it in the world of art. As Haifisch commented, the story is not closely inspired by her own life, "but the protagonist does have a lot in common with me in terms of temperament." Episodes of The Artist have also been published as books since 2016.[5]

In 2018, Haifisch was a featured guest artist at the MoCCA Arts Festival, Manhattan's largest independent comics, cartoon and animation festival.[6] Celebrating International Women's Day 2018, Google chose Haifisch as one of 12 international graphic artists to design a doodle.[7] In 2020, the New York Museum of Modern Art commissioned her work for their series Drawn to MoMA.[8]

Haifisch, whose name means shark in German, often uses graphic versions of human-like "funny animals" as main characters of her stories. These animal figures are experiencing the absurdities of daily life. In particular, her bird-like character The Artist reflects the challenges of being an artist in an ironical way.[9] Her work is further characterized by thin lines drawn with an ink pen and expressive yellow and orange colours. In her large-size book Drifter, she was said to "bend[...] the rules of comics."[10] Her style has been described as a combination of "dark" melancholy and "silly" elements, influenced by the graphic styles and colours of past decades.[11]

Having grown up and studied in Leipzig, an important cultural centre in the Eastern part of Germany,[12] during the years following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Haifisch named Czech and Russian graphic art as influences. As a child, she was attracted to American culture, which included comics by Walt Disney and other elements of the American way of life. Her illustrations have appeared in German and international magazines and newspapers, including Die Zeit,[13] The New Yorker,[14] The New York Times,[15] Bloomberg Businessweek,[16] Le Monde diplomatique and others.

Reception

Among other recognitions, The Artist was nominated for the 2017 Los Angeles Times Book Prize.[17] In 2020, Haifisch was distinguished with the international Max-und-Moritz-Preis as Best Comic Artist in German language publications.

Apart from other group and solo exhibitions of her graphic art, the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg presented around 300 works in 2024 as an overview of her artistic creations, including illustrations, prints, comics, drawings and products with her designs.[18]

Awards and recognition

Selected publications

Selected exhibitions

General and cited references

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Le Monde Diplomatique – Artist: Anna Haifisch . 3 September 2024 . @GI_weltweit . Goethe-Institut . en.
  2. Web site: Anna Haifisch and pals to open the sixth Millionaires Club, a comic and graphics festival in Leipzig . 3 September 2024 . www.itsnicethat.com . en.
  3. Web site: Haifisch . Anna . 5 September 2015 . The Artist . 6 September 2024 . VICE . en-US.
  4. Web site: 31 March 2017 . Anna Haifisch Archives . 6 September 2024 . VICE . en-US.
  5. Web site: Pannor . Stefan . Anna Haifisch – Leipzig and the World . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20201022122157/https://www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/kul/bks/cad/21452386.html . 22 October 2020 . 5 September 2024 . @GI_weltweit . . en.
  6. Web site: Panel discussion: The International Comics Scene: Max de Radiguès and Anna Haifisch – Goethe-Institut USA . 3 September 2024 . @GI_weltweit . en.
  7. Web site: International Women's Day 2018 Doodle – Google Doodles . 5 September 2024 . doodles.google . en.
  8. https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/205 the Artist x Modern Museum of Art
  9. Web site: Fischer . Sigrid . 12 April 2017 . Tiergeschichten von Anna Haifisch – "Comiczeichner ist ein einsamer Job" . 3 September 2024 . Deutschlandfunk . de.
  10. Web site: Anna Haifisch bends the rules of comics in new floppy and oversized book, Drifter . 4 September 2024 . www.itsnicethat.com . en.
  11. Web site: 6 November 2023 . Anna Haifisch . 3 September 2024 . www.mkg-hamburg.de . Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg . en.
  12. Web site: 2 September 2024 . Leipzig Germany, History, Population, & Facts Britannica . 6 September 2024 . www.britannica.com . en.
  13. News: Fischermann . Thomas . Buchter . Heike . 14 March 2024 . Kryptowährungen: Sollten Sie jetzt in Bitcoin und andere Kryptos investieren? . 8 September 2024 . Die Zeit . de-DE . 0044-2070.
  14. Marx . Patricia . 19 June 2023 . Is the Army's New Tactical Bra Ready for Deployment? . 6 September 2024 . The New Yorker . en-US . 0028-792X.
  15. Web site: Holman . Jordyn . 16 February 2023 . The Retail C.E.O. Pipeline Is Running Dry . 6 September 2024 . The New York Times.
  16. News: 6 April 2023 . What to Do With Your Money—and Your Life—in a Wild New World . 6 September 2024 . Bloomberg.com . en.
  17. Web site: James-Wilson . Matthew . 'You Want to be Surrounded by Weirdness': An Interview with Anna Haifisch Hazlitt . 3 September 2024 . hazlitt.net . en.
  18. Web site: NDR . "Bis hierhin lief's noch gut": Anna-Haifisch-Ausstellung in Hamburg . 3 September 2024 . www.ndr.de . de.
  19. Web site: 11 November 2021 . 7 November 2015 . Erich Ohser – e.o.plauen Stiftung . Anna Haifisch erhält den e.o.plauen Förderpreis 2016 .
  20. Web site: Schaub . Michael . 22 February 2017 . L.A. Times Book Prize finalists include Zadie Smith and Rep. John Lewis; Thomas McGuane will be honored . 8 September 2024 . Los Angeles Times . en-US.
  21. Web site: 13 February 2020 . Heiner Lünstedt . 12 November 2018 . Haifisch-Ballade . Süddeutsche Zeitung.
  22. News: Tagesspiegel-Comic ausgezeichnet: Max-und-Moritz-Preis für "Busengewunder" . 3 September 2024 . Der Tagesspiegel Online . de-DE . 1865-2263.
  23. Web site: 20 October 2021 . 30 September 2021 . Leipziger Comiczeichnerin Anna Haifisch erhält den LVZ-Kunstpreis . LVZ.de.
  24. Web site: Grant Recipient Details - Anna Haifisch . 6 September 2024 . www.vatmh.org.
  25. Web site: 29 February 2024 . Anna Haifisch et ses souris au Musée Tomi Ungerer – poly.fr . 3 September 2024 . Magazine Poly . de-DE.
  26. Web site: 10 July 2023 . Anna Haifisch im Museum Folkwang Museum Folkwang . 3 September 2024 . www.museum-folkwang.de . de.
  27. Web site: Kunsthalle Osnabrück Homi . 3 September 2024 . kunsthalle.osnabrueck.de . de.
  28. Web site: Anna Haifisch "Fuji-san" . 4 September 2024 . KABINETT comic passage im MQ Wien . de-DE.
  29. Web site: Anna Haifisch . 3 September 2024 . Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz . de-DE.

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