For several centuries, most bookplates were created based on the coat of arms of book owners. When books became cheaper and more accessible, this tradition became a thing of the past: graphic images became more thematically and stylistically diverse. Henryk Feilhauer is a Polish artist of the 20th century, the author of bookplates, which he painted for collectors and libraries.
Feilhauer graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Nicolaus Copernicus University, where he became acquainted with the art of the bookplate. However, immediately after training, he did little in graphics, but worked mainly on furniture and interior design. For some time I painted posters for the emerging socio-political movement “Solidarity”. In the 1980s, Feilhauer immersed himself in graphics and over the next decades concentrated his efforts on the bookplate.
These bookplates testify to the artist's broad outlook and often contain references to famous works. In several drawings you can see the Towers of Babel from the books being built. Both towers are similar to the giant structure in Pieter Bruegel the Elder's painting The Tower of Babel (1563).
The topics are varied: antique coins, arthropods, ancient sages, fantastic images, like dreams come to life - each time the author demonstrates a wealth of imagination and erudition. Feilhauer used several techniques, including engraving, etching, aquatint, etc.
While still a student, the artist participated in the International Exhibition of Contemporary Bookplates in Poland. Having received recognition, Feilhauer became a member of the jury, and in 1998 he headed the exhibition. In subsequent years, the number of his collective and personal exhibitions grew: he received many awards in the field of small graphics and bookplates.
Source: art-exlibris.net
