Printer's Proof – 100 Years of griffelkunst

Special opening hours Thursday and Friday, 11 am–8 pm Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, 11 am–6 pm Closed on Mondays

Open printing workshop Thursday to Sunday, from 3 pm (except 14 September 2025)

Finissage and collection of prints Sunday, 14 September 2025, 3–6 pm

Griffelkunst-Vereinigung Hamburg e. V. publishes editions of original graphic artworks and multiples, and makes them available to its numerous members. The association thereby contributes significantly to broadening participation in art, to promoting artists and the medium of printmaking. To mark their 100th anniversary, we honour this commitment with a special participatory project: our exhibition hall transforms into an open printing workshop for a fortnight and offers an insight into the personal griffelkunst collections of Hamburg artists.

The designs created especially for the campaign address issues of networking and communication: drawing on his many years of engagement with various forms of transportation, Thomas Bayrle contributes a depiction of an entwined network of roads. Nadira Husain places the iconic figure of Nefertiti at the centre of her motif as a wanderer in a post-migrant world. Martin Boyce’s work is based on a typography he developed himself, whose angular letters are reminiscent of names or small messages carved into tables, benches and trees.

The programme is complemented by a special exhibition that blurs the boundaries between production, collecting and curating: Hamburg artists, some of whom have themselves previously created an edition for griffelkunst, were invited to contribute favourite pieces from their private collections to the presentation. Based on these works, the exhibition provides an intimate insight into the collecting practices of those involved and at the same time offers an impressive overview of griffelkunst’s many years of work.

The project is being realized in close cooperation with Griffelkunst-Vereinigung Hamburg e. V. and the printing workshops of HAW Hamburg under the direction of Professor Ellen Sturm.