Werner Schinko

Werner Schinko was one of the most prominent book illustrators in the GDR. Born in Bohemia, Schinko in 1943 commenced an apprenticeship as glass painter in Gablonz an der Neiße at the Staatsfachschule für Schmuckindustrie. In 1946, his family was re-located to Röbel/Müritz, where he initially worked as assistant in a wood-turning workshop. From 1950 to 1955, he studied with Werner Klemke, Ernst Rudolf Vogenauer and Ernst Jadzewski at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee. For his masters, he completed a series of woodcuts on the subject of Fritz Reuter‘s verse novella Kein Hüsung (No Life Estate).

After 1955, Werner Schinko lived as independent graphic artist and painter in Röbel. He worked as illustrator for Hinstorff Verlag and contributed illustrations to more than 100 books between 1959 and 1989, including 30 volumes of literature from lower (northern) Germany and numerous children’s books. Starting in 1962, Schinko designed the title pages for the magazine Die Unterstufe and created over 300 covers for the magazine up through 1996. He was included in the art exhibitions of the GDR and in 1986 showed his work as draughtsman in Amsterdam at the Alte Börse in the context of the exhibition DDR – Ein überraschendes Land (GDR – A Land of Surprises). There, he also worked with children in an art workshop. In 1996, he exhibited at the Palais Rameau in Lille and once again at the Alte Börse in Amsterdam. Werner Schinko created memorable representations of animals, fairy-tale figures, and other literary scenes, thus shaping the world of images for a significant part of his generation.

text: Elke Neumann, translation: Darrell Wilkins