THE Guan Shanyue Art Museum is holding an exhibition of posters by German graphic designer Holger Matthies until Dec. 16.

The exhibition, which kicks off Shenzhen's second Creative December, is the first time the work of Matthies has been formally exhibited in China.

The exhibition displays 150 of Matthies' works created over four decades. Born in 1940, Matthies became a graphic designer in Hamburg in 1966 and later a professor at Germany's Berlin University of Art.

Excelling in social and political posters as well as commercial art, Matthies has won more than a dozen international awards for poster design. "The special nature of Matthies' posters is that they are designed entirely to promote culture and possess humor and incision," said a reviewer after an exhibition in Chicago, the United States.

Many of Matthies' posters were commissioned by European cultural institutions, including theaters and concert halls. "His works display the harmony of graphics, words, music and dramas. With no fixed mode of thinking, he knows how to organize elements in a poster to produce rich contents and visual effects," said the introduction to the Guan Shanyue exhibition.

After the opening ceremony of the exhibition, Matthies also met a group of Chinese graphic designers Tuesday morning and discussed with them issues relating to poster design in China and in the West. Many Shenzhen designers said Matthies' works had influenced them a lot.

Matthies said design to a city is like furniture to a house; it is part of the city's culture. Designers should have a sense of responsibility and a mission to promote their work and shape the city's culture.

Matthies added that he believed that rapid economic development generally coincided with a boom in culture. "China's economy is already booming, the people's demands towards culture would naturally increase, and the role designers could play will become bigger," he said.

In the late 1970s and the early 1980s Matthies and some of his students launched a design movement in Germany. They went to cultural institutions and told the people in charge that the existing designs could be largely improved.

More often than not, the group's suggestions for change were adopted. "We were participants of our culture," he said.

No artist can make a living only designing posters even in Europe, Matthies said. His studio in Germany designs books, discs, business cards, and letter paper, to support his interest in posters.

"Poster is a combination of advertising, business and culture. Many designers are swaying between treating them as commercial design projects and culture. But there is no answer as to which aspect is more important," he said.

Matthies' words were echoed by Wang Chunjie, president of the media design school under Beijing Normal University. He said a poster is not just an expression of culture, it is also a form of advertising through which a patron seeks publicity.

Matthies said he believes that in a city that is young, dynamic, and environmentally-friendly like Shenzhen, the designers should be vigorous in their work.

To mark the ongoing Creative December campaign in Shenzhen, Matthies donated 106 of his posters to the Guan Shanyue museum's collection.

Editor: Wing