Werner David Feist

1909–1998

Feist (German, 1909–1998) was a graphic designer, art director and university lecturer. He was a student at the Bauhaus from October 1927 to April 1930, studied with Josef Albers, was taught by Klee and Kandinsky, worked in Schlemmer’s theater workshop, studied in the advertising workshop under Joost Schmidt, and learned photography with Walter Peterhans (using his own 9 x 12 plate camera); he received a qualification certificate from the advertising workshop and photographic department in 1930. He participated in the Gas und Wasser exhibition, Berlin, under Joost Schmidt and 1929 in the Werkbund Film und Foto exhibition in Stuttgart. From 1930–1933 he was employed as an advertising artist in Prague, and, from 1933–1939 lived there as a self-employed advertising artist, photographer and journalist, also becoming interested in color photography. In 1939 he stopped working as a photographer and fled to Poland. He served in the British Army from 1940-1945, and after working as an art director in London after the war, permanently moved to Canada in 1951. There he worked as art director, lecturer, painter and graphic artist, and advisor until his death in 1998.