Xanti Schawinsky

Shawinsky was born March 25, 1904, in Basel, the second child of Benjamin Schawinsky and Regina Bielawska, both of Polish-Jewish descent.

After visiting the Berlin School of Applied Arts for a short time in 1923, Schawinsky enrolled in the Bauhaus in Weimar in 1924.

In 1929 Schawinsky went to Magdeburg, hired by Johannes Göderitz to head the graphic department of the municipal building authority.

Due to political and Antisemitic hostility, Schawinsky left Magdeburg at the end of 1931 and moved to Berlin as a freelance artist.

Schawinsky was invited to Black Mountain College in the US in 1936 by Josef Albers and the Museum of Modern Art in New York exhibited his work.

From 1961 Schawinsky travelled for longer periods to Europe, building a second home in Oggebbio on Lake Maggiore and also exhibited in Germany.